Alan Shipnuck, writer of Phil Mickelson biography, faraway from LIV Golf interview space

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USA TODAY

Maybe Phil Mickelson has had adequate of Alan Shipnuck or Greg Norman wanted to make a level. 

Either strategy, one in every of many strangest days in present golf historic previous ended on the Centurion Golf Club near London on Thursday night time with Shipnuck, the author of “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar,” being away from what’s known as the flash interview area on the LIV Golf Invitational Series inaugural event.

Shipnuck, a companion for The Fire Pit Collective, traveled to the United Kingdom for the event and adopted Mickelson all through his opening spherical. Afterward, Mickelson spoke to members of the press, as is customary.

However, Shipnuck was not allowed to hitch.

He wrote on Twitter:

“Well, a couple of neckless security dudes just physically removed me from Phil Mickelson’s press conference, saying they were acting on orders from their boss, whom they refused to name. (Greg Norman? MBS? Al Capone?) Never a dull moment up in here.” 

Golfweek reached out to Shipnuck, who replied in a textual content material message: “I was credentialed and I was standing in the flash area at the start of Phil’s presser when they came for me.”

Not allowing a credentialed press member to attend a participant’s press conference is exceptional on totally different golf excursions, nevertheless points acquired stranger inside the moments afterward.

Shipnuck despatched textual content material messages to LIV Golf’s commissioner, Greg Norman, to stage out the incident, and Norman replied that he had not heard about it. Shipnuck didn’t know when he despatched the message that Norman had seen the complete factor.

In an e-mail to Golfweek, Shipnuck talked about: “I have no ill will toward Phil. I just wanted to ask him one boring golf question, which is my job. Either he is being way too sensitive or the LIV folks are being too overprotective but, either way, they are overreacting.”

This incident comes two days after Associated Press reporter Rob Harris was decrease off, away from the LIV media coronary heart and reprimanded by LIV officers for not being “polite.” Harris was allowed once more into the media coronary heart about 10 minutes later, based mostly on ESPN.

“The security guards were inappropriately aggressive and physical, considering I was just standing there trying to make sense of the bizarre reasons they were citing for wanting to remove me,” Shipnuck talked about.

The second spherical of the LIV Golf London event is Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET. LIV Golf doesn’t have a TV deal nevertheless is streaming the occasion on its YouTube channel.

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“This whole situation is messy and ridiculous,” Shipnuck talked about to Golfweek. “If I’ve one other boring golf query for Phil I’ll ask it as a result of I did fly 6,000 miles to be right here and I’m not inclined to be silenced by Greg Norman and his goons.

“Or maybe I’ll just focus on Chantananuwat Ratchanon. … he seems like a nice kid.”

Golfweek’s Steve DiMeglio contributed to this textual content.