Phil Mickelson’s name is back in the public spotlight after Golf Digest reported he was told to leave The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, California, over alleged nonconsensual and inappropriate physical contact with a female employee. The new allegation a
It started with a grooming-like pattern Ashley Perez says she recognized only later—while the person at the center of it was still widely celebrated on golf’s biggest stages.
Ashley Perez met Phil Mickelson through his friendship with her then-husband Pat Perez. They were San Diego natives who shared a mutual respect and long history. though Mickelson and Pat were not close friends. Ashley said the tone of their connection changed after Pat and Ashley married in 2014, when she was 27 and Pat was 38. She described Mickelson making an effort to get to know her: texting her under the guise of friendship.
Ashley said, “I was so young and innocent. I’m just this girl from Oklahoma and it’s like, I can’t believe Phil Mickelson wants to be my buddy! And he’s sending me good morning texts! Looking back now, it definitely feels like I was being groomed.”
In 2015. during the Barclays tournament at Plainfield Country Club in Edison. NJ. Mickelson stayed nearby in a villa at Liberty National Golf Course. where he is a member. Ashley and Pat were at a sushi restaurant when Mickelson called Ashley—not Pat—to say he had arranged for them to move to his villa. The Perezes gathered their belongings and headed to Liberty National.
That night. Pat and Ashley stayed up drinking red wine with Phil on the patio of his villa. looking out at the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan’s lights. Ashley says that when Pat excused himself to use the restroom. Mickelson took out his phone and showed her a full-body picture of himself naked with an erection while flexing one bicep.
Ashley claims Mickelson told her: “Phil says to me, ‘I’m going to leave my bedroom door open tonight. When Pat falls asleep I want you to come see me.’”
She demurred and, she said, did not tell Pat then. “We were staying next door to Phil,” she said, “and Pat still had to play in the tournament. I didn’t want it to get messy.” Ashley told Pat about the photo at the conclusion of the tournament. Pat did not confront Mickelson directly. Ashley said. but over time Pat told many people about what allegedly happened. and those people in turn told others. until Mickelson’s genitals became “an urban legend on Tour.”.
Mickelson ultimately apologized to Pat during a corporate outing at the Madison Club in La Quinta, California.
The ugliness spilled further into public view in November 2022. when Pat went on Claude Harmon’s podcast and said. “I have a different hate for Phil than most people. And people won’t know the story—I’m not gonna go into the story again—but Phil crossed the line with me that is just uncrossable and unforgivable. He knows that he screwed up. He apologized for the action, but I cannot forgive him for it.”.
When those comments went viral, Mickelson called Pat again to apologize. Ashley has a recording of the call and allowed it to be listened to. During the 26-minute phone call, Mickelson alternated between contrition and saying he didn’t remember the details of that night. When Pat laid out the story that Mickelson had shown Ashley “a naked photo” of himself. Mickelson responded. “You mean topless?”.
As Pat grew more irritated, he told Mickelson: “That’s a real problem. If you don’t remember these things, that’s a fucking problem. That means you’ve got a lot of fucking shit going on.”
Mickelson apologized directly to both Pat and Ashley without admitting what he had done. He said, “I can’t tell you how disgusted and embarrassed I am in myself.”
When reached for comment, Pat said, “I’m not talking about Phil. I don’t care if he did or didn’t do something. None of my business or concern. Thank you.”
Ashley filed for divorce in 2023 and. after once being an enthusiastic booster of LIV Golf when Pat joined the tour the previous year. she has taken a lower profile on social media. She said she is more focused on launching a charitable foundation devoted to maternal health and running three businesses she founded: a medical device company. a ride-share app. and a spirits company. Ashley has also spoken about why she decided to talk about Mickelson now.
“There is a culture of silence that keeps women from coming forward,” she said. “I want to give other women the courage to share their truth. With Phil. I feel like the pattern has been there for many years but people have been afraid to go public because it’s Phil Mickelson. We give these golfers so much adulation and money, they think they’re gods. They think they’re untouchable. Being a pro athlete doesn’t exempt you from behaving respectfully in society. With Phil, you’re dealing with an egotistical narcissist. I know the type—I used to be married to one. Phil will keep going until he gets caught. Actually, it takes more than that. If Phil’s behavior is ever going to change. he has to understand the trauma he has caused so many people in so many parts of his life.”.
Now, fresh allegations have added another layer to an increasingly public pattern of confrontation and distance.
On June 11. Golf Digest reported that a few months earlier. Mickelson had been told to leave The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe. California. because of alleged “nonconsensual and inappropriate physical contact” with a female employee. A representative for Mickelson confirmed that he had resigned from the club after decades of being a member there.
Mickelson’s attorney Tom Clare responded to the report in a way that disputed the story’s credibility. Clare told Golf Digest. “Any misunderstanding has been cleared up” and “there is a great deal of misinformation circulating…” He later provided a detailed statement from a spokeswoman for Mickelson when comment was requested.
The statement said: “Some of the allegations circulating about Mr. Mickelson are false, and others revisit mistakes he has already acknowledged, publicly or privately. Stacking the disputed claims next to the ones he has owned does not make them credible. It instead contributes to a false and misleading narrative.
No person, no article, and no book can present an accurate, complete, or personal story of the life Mr. Mickelson and his family have lived. His story, struggles, and recovery belong to him and to the people who have shared it closely alongside him. Recovery is not a straight line. Throughout their 35-year relationship, his wife, Amy Mickelson, has supported Mr. Mickelson and their family with extraordinary grace. unwavering love. and the belief that people are measured not only by their failures. but by what they do to make them right.
Mr. Mickelson’s priority is to become the husband, father, and man his family deserves. Right now, that means giving his full attention to a private family health matter. He understands that parts of his life are public, but his family’s private matters are not.”
According to the reporting tied to The Farms, the abrupt exit there appears to fit into a wider sequence. In recent years. Mickelson had abrupt departures from two other high-end golf clubs—The Madison Club and The Bridges in Rancho Santa Fe—where sources said his personal conduct was a primary factor.
In The Bridges, Jim Miller, the general manager, declined to answer questions, saying via email, “The club will not comment on Mr. Mickelson (or any of our members) or anything involved with his history at The Bridges.”
The story now sits at the intersection of apology, dispute, and repeated allegations—raising a question about what Mickelson’s public remorse looks like when compared to accounts of what others say they lived through.
What makes the public reaction more combustible is the contrast between how Mickelson was once presented—and how people describe him now.
He was once viewed as golf’s family man. He famously pledged to walk off the course at the 1999 U.S. Open if his wife Amy went into labor with their first child. and caddie Jim (“Bones”) MacKay carried a beeper all week. waiting for the call. Amy had the baby the day after the tournament ended. The drama became a storyline at the national championship.
His image also became intertwined with the 2010 Masters, framed as a morality play in the pines. Tiger Woods was returning to public life for the first time since his sex scandal broke. and then Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said. “It is not simply the degree of [Woods’s] conduct that is so egregious here: it is the fact that he disappointed all of us. and more importantly. our kids and our grandkids.” During that time. Mickelson’s wife and mother were both battling breast cancer. and Mickelson won that Masters for them. Amy was waiting for Phil behind the final green at Augusta National. and when they hugged the whole golf world cried along with them.
Three years later, at age 43, Mickelson enjoyed what he called his greatest triumph, winning the Open Championship. Amy and their three kids were there for a group hug after Phil brushed in one final birdie putt.
That image was financially rewarded. Forbes estimated Mickelson’s 2013 endorsement income at $44 million, and with $4.7 million in on-course earnings he was the seventh highest paid athlete in the world.
But the reporting describes a turn after that Open. when wins dwindled and Amy traveled less and less while focusing on her health and their children. People close to Mickelson in later years described a shift: drinking more on the road. red wine replacing routine. and behavior they say grew increasingly erratic.
A woman described an evening during a tournament week where Mickelson asked inappropriate questions about her personal life and propositioned her in graphic detail. She said, “Something felt off. He was behaving a little odd. Out of nowhere. Phil started asking the most inappropriate questions about my personal life and then propositioning me in graphic detail. He went on and on about how he had been fantasizing about me and all the things he wanted to do to me. It was incredibly awkward. The rest of us kept trying to change the subject but he was relentless. The more wine he drank the louder he got. There was a family at the table next to us and I have no idea what they heard. It was horrible – I was sweating profusely. It felt like verbal rape.” Two other members of the dinner party corroborated Mickelson’s behavior and lurid language.
The reporting also describes another dinner involving Pat Perez. Mickelson. and Mickelson’s agent Steve (“Coach”) Loy. where Ashley said the conversation grew dark and sexual. She said Phil used “two fingers to graphically demonstrate some of his techniques to me. ” and called it “incredibly inappropriate—we were at a nice restaurant with a lot of people at the table.” In the recorded phone conversation between Pat and Phil. Mickelson apologized if he had offended with his behavior at that dinner. and Pat said he had enjoyed getting to know “a different side” of Mickelson. Pat also said, “I had no problem with the dinner at all. Coach did, but I didn’t.”.
To some, these accounts read like a long arc of private conduct breaking into public consequences.
The timing now matters because the June 11 reporting places The Farms allegations in the spotlight just as Mickelson’s presence in professional golf has been visibly altered. One of the reporting threads tying the personal and professional appears in his LIV schedule: Mickelson missed the first four tournaments of the LIV season citing a “family health matter. ” and he played in LIV South Africa. conducted March 19-22. Dustin Johnson said. “I talked to him in South Africa and he was really happy to be out playing. ” adding. “He looked good. I thought he was locked in for the rest of the season.”.
When Golf Digest published its story about The Farms, No Laying Up tweeted that “golf’s worst kept secret is out.” Mickelson skipped the Masters, citing a family health situation, and later skipped the PGA Championship, again citing the same reason.
Some of the fallout has also been described as social: friendships fraying, invitations disappearing, and clubs closing doors.
The reporting says Mickelson had a one-bedroom condo on the second story of the clubhouse at the Madison Club. and that in December and January he would spend long stretches at the club preparing for the coming PGA Tour season. It also says his abrupt leaving from the Madison Club in 2021 came with demands from Amy. with a call from [Phil’s and Amy’s] wealth management firm saying they needed Phil’s place sold. gone. right now. and that Phil would no longer be a member.
It describes how. after leaving Madison. Mickelson consolidated much of his golf at The Bridges. and that his honorary membership was later transferred to another San Diego native. Xander Schauffele. It also claims that multiple sources believed Amy had knowledge of Phil’s actions and that Amy’s attorney did not respond to Skratch’s request for comment.
On the golf business side. the reporting frames Mickelson as increasingly isolated as LIV’s future remains in question and as the PGA Tour has reportedly shown him little room to return. It describes a “returning member program” that. it says. was narrowly tailored to include major champions from 2022 onward. and it cites his 2021 PGA Championship win.
In the end. the most immediate impact for readers is the sense that the story is no longer just about one apology or one podcast clip. It’s now about a club asking a member to leave over alleged nonconsensual and inappropriate physical contact. and about years of other accounts—some disputed. some said to be remembered only partially—coming under the same harsh light.
Whether the allegations lead to formal consequences beyond private resignations and denied claims, the public record of conflict is growing. For Ashley Perez, the reason to keep speaking is simple. “With Phil. ” she said. “I feel like the pattern has been there for many years but people have been afraid to go public because it’s Phil Mickelson.”.
Phil Mickelson Pat Perez Ashley Perez The Farms Golf Club Rancho Santa Fe nonconsensual contact golf clubs LIV Golf Madison Club The Bridges