Shipnuck can't help tracing the arc of the Woods-Mickelson rivalry...Shipnuck is interested in Mickelson's reputed dark side and why it keeps threatening to pop out from behind his carefully constructed nice-guy facade...Shipnuck digs more deeply into Mickelson’s gambling than anyone has so far...His addiction has led him to grow tight with dubious characters...He bets on football so heavily, Mickelson told a friend, that his bets 'might move the line'...His gambling losses totaled more than $40 million from 2010 to 2014, according to documents reviewed by one of Shipnuck’s sources...Is his willingness to sign autographs forever, for example, the mark of a generous spirit or a 'shameless brand-building exercise'?...Shipnuck considers arguments both ways...Golf turns people into bores, in my experience, but Mickelson does not seem like one. He’s convivial, and his conversation is not always about golf.

Shipnuck's nose for the truth takes the reader into some dark and disconcerting places...He provides frequent and fully anecdoted references to Mickelson's gamling—the Tom Lehman and Gary McCord quotes in Chapter 9 are morsels of shameless humor and lecherous indiscretion...He also addresses the minefield of rumors loosley connected to Philly Mick's personal life, unveiling stories that have circulated for more than two decades...The salacious stuff gets most of the attention, but the product in its entirety is engaging, addictive and impressive...Shipnuck's expansive Ryder Cup passages feature perhaps the strongest content of any topic, not only loaded with background and on-the-record reflections, but anchored by a level of insight that isn't easily culled from such a tightly sealed event...Given all his current troubles — including an extremely uncertain future — potentially serious money issues and an unenviable history of drawing attention to himself for many of the wrong reasons, it’s worth remembering that Phil Mickelson is a husband and a father...And a champion for the ages...And a dude who remains prone to inexcusable bouts of knuckleheadedness on a regular basis...A human being...Flawed and idolized, despised and lionized...Shipnuck does a terrific job of shaping these complexities into a compelling, 249-page read that has already become central to the biggest golf story in 2022.

Sports Illustrated writer Shipnuck delivers a rollicking look at the career of legendary golder Phil Mickelson, a 'subject of much fascination and more than a little scorn'...Drawing on years of insider access, Shipnuck provides readers unfettered access to the larger-than-life sports figure, from his beginnings in the 1980s as a plucky underdog who could never quite win a Major tournament to becoming one of golf's all-time greats...Shipnuck recounts the golfer's decades-long antipathy with his 'nemesis' Tiger Woods...In spite of the 'perma-grin and goofy thumbs-up,' Shipnuck lucidly points out that Mickelson's appearances could be incredibly deceiving, and it's his particularly eye-opening treatment of the golfer's less savory-side that give this account remarkable depth...Fans shouldn't miss this.