In November, Arizona State announced that Mickelson would join its coaching staff as an assistant under his brother and head coach Tim Mickelson. The move was largely a recruiting ploy, with Phil responsible for making calls to prospective golfers on an interim basis until Tim could fill the position with a full-time hire.
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But Lefty barely lasted two months.
“Yes, I recently got fired from that position,” Phil told reporters Wednesday, laughing about the situation before the Phoenix Open.
A few days before ASU announced Mickelson’s hire, Ryan Ruffels, a 16-year-old American-born amateur living in Australia, tweeted that he had just received a call from the five-time major winner.
That, apparently, necessitated Phil’s official title to be sure his brother’s program would be clear of any NCAA recruiting violations.
“We had developed a plan to where I could call some recruits,” Phil said. “We weren’t really going to say anything and hadn’t said anything for a few weeks until one of the players had tweeted it and it looked like there were some improprieties, which there weren’t.
“So we had to publicly announce I was assistant coach, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to make the phone calls I had been making. As of the first week of January, Tim needed, my brother, needed a real assistant to help out with a bunch of the things going on with the traveling and I got fired.”
Tim Mickelson has since filled the assistant position with a full-time hire. This time, there was no announcement from Arizona State.
