I first met Phil Mickelson in 2006 on the AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am in Northern California. Swedish professional Freddie Jacobson and I made the lower and, as destiny would have it, we had been paired with Phil and his novice accomplice.
Phil and Freddie had been on their method to a pair of 77’s and a tie for thirty-eighth place. All through the ultimate spherical, Phil and I talked nothing however sports activities, oblivious to the beguiling great thing about the Monterey Peninsula and one among my favourite programs on this planet. It was evident that he knew of my sports-gambling success and was attempting to attach on that degree.
Regardless of his bloated rating that day, Phil’s brilliance as a golfer was in full bloom. All through the years, I’ve performed with many PGA Tour execs and, frankly, Phil had one other gear that the majority others don’t have. He was additionally prepared to place all of it on the road and threat dropping a golf event to hit one miraculous shot. A person after my very own coronary heart!
In Could 2008, I used to be invited to play in one other Professional-Am on the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a visitor of the financial institution. I ran into Phil within the locker room. This time, he was extra direct.
“I hear you do partnerships,” he mentioned.
“I do,” I mentioned. “However provided that somebody has entry to locations I can’t wager. Or locations the place they’ll wager more cash than me.”
Phil had each. After the Wachovia assembly, we stored in contact and ultimately entered right into a playing partnership that lasted 5 years. Throughout that point, we performed a couple of dozen rounds of golf collectively, most of them in Southern California.
We at all times had a small wager on the line-usually $10,000-but our matches had been by no means about cash. We grew to become what I believed had been pals. If you happen to’ve ever had a golf buddy, what I’m speaking about.
Greater than as soon as all through our betting partnership, I discovered myself compelled to supply some quiet counsel to assist Phil keep away from a number of the identical points that plagued me as a youthful man. I need to clarify that I’m the final individual to criticize somebody for an dependancy to something.
From the beginning, our betting settlement – one we verbally negotiated-called for us to separate every part fifty-fifty. Phil put up half the cash; I put up the opposite half. That approach, we shared an equal quantity of threat and reward.
Phil mentioned he had two offshore accounts that will take large motion from him. In all of the many years I’ve labored with companions and beards, Phil had accounts as massive as anybody I’d seen. You don’t get these forms of accounts with out betting thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
My purpose for partnering with him was easy. Given my popularity within the playing world, my limits with Phil’s two bookmakers had been roughly $20,000 a recreation on school and $50,000 on the professionals. Even after our fifty-fifty cut up, Phil’s limits of $400,000 on school at offshore sportsbooks and one other $400,000 on the NFL enabled me to a minimum of double my limits. Phil additionally had a $100,000 restrict on school over/underneath bets with every e-book, twenty instances my most.
By his personal admission, Phil was price an estimated $250 million throughout our time betting collectively (he collected a reported $50 million yearly in endorsements alone). We agreed that anytime our winnings or losses reached $Three million, we’d settle up. In reality, I used to be no extra apprehensive about Phil paying me $Three million than a median individual owing me a thousand bucks.
At first, I didn’t know Phil’s betting habits or background, so I did some analysis. My technique was to emulate his betting patterns to disguise the truth that it was Billy Walters, not Phil Mickelson, inserting the bets. I adopted his patterns, betting on the identical time, in comparable quantities, canine or favorites, using his horses so long as we may.
The primary six months of our settlement ran like Secretariat. The offshore bookies didn’t detect something totally different within the sample of Phil’s bets aside from that he was successful much more typically. Regardless of our greatest efforts to maintain the 2 accounts alive, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the offshore bookies closed them. They instructed Phil the bets had been much more disciplined than ordinary, so that they knew they weren’t solely his. He may resume betting, they mentioned, however provided that it was on his personal. This led Phil to activate a previously dormant account for our partnership.
As I mentioned, Phil favored to gamble as a lot as anybody I’ve ever met. Frankly, given Phil’s annual earnings and internet price on the time, I had no issues together with his betting. And nonetheless don’t. He’s a big-time gambler, and big-time gamblers make large bets. It’s his cash to spend how he desires.
In late September 2012, Phil known as me from Medinah Nation Membership simply outdoors Chicago, website of the 39th Ryder Cup matches between the US and Europe. He was feeling supremely assured that the American squad led by Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, and Phil himself was about to reclaim the Cup from the Euros. He was so assured that he requested me to put a $400,000 wager for him on the U.S. crew to win.
I couldn’t imagine what I used to be listening to.
“Have you ever misplaced your fucking thoughts?” I instructed him. “Don’t you keep in mind what occurred to Pete Rose?” The previous Cincinnati Reds supervisor was banned from baseball for betting on his personal crew. “You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer,” I added. “You’d threat all that for this? I would like no a part of it.’’
“Alright, alright,” he replied.
I don’t know whether or not Phil positioned the wager elsewhere. Hopefully, he got here to his senses, particularly contemplating the “Miracle at Medinah.” Trailing 10-6 going into the ultimate day of singles matches, the Europeans pulled off the best comeback in Ryder Cup historical past. They received eight matches and tied one to beat the People by a single level, 141/2 to 131/2.
Phil’s loss to Justin Rose that Sunday contributed to the gorgeous defeat.
After my betting partnership with Phil ended within the spring of 2014, I discovered much more about his sports activities playing from two very dependable sources.
They mentioned it was nothing for Phil to wager $20,000 a recreation on long-shot, five-team NBA parlays. Or wager $100,000 or $200,000 a recreation on soccer, basketball, and baseball. Based mostly upon my detailed betting information and extra information offered by the sources, here’s a snapshot of Phil’s playing behavior between 2010 and 2014:
• He wager $110,000 to win $100,000 a complete of 1,115 instances.
• On 858 events, he wager $220,000 to win $200,000. (The sum of these 1,973 gross wagers got here to greater than $311 million.)
• In 2011 alone, he made 3,154 bets-an common of practically 9 per day.
• On in the future in 2011 (June 22), he made forty-three bets on major-league baseball video games, leading to $143,500 in losses.
• He made a staggering 7,065 wagers on soccer, basketball, and baseball.
Based mostly on our relationship and what I’ve since discovered from others, Phil’s playing losses approached not $40 million as has been beforehand reported, however a lot nearer to $100 million. In all, he wagered a complete of greater than $1 billion throughout the previous three many years.
The one different individual I do know who surpassed that type of quantity is me.
Ever because it was revealed that I used to be writing an autobiography, there’s been a whole lot of hypothesis relating to what I’d need to say about Phil. I’ve no intention of sharing any particulars about his private life. I’ll depart that to others in the event that they so select.
Various individuals within the media, on Twitter, and within the golf world have steered that Phil ratted me out on insider buying and selling fees. That isn’t what occurred.
What occurred was a lot worse.
Phil Mickelson, one of the well-known individuals on this planet and a person I as soon as thought-about a buddy, refused to inform a easy fact that he shared with the FBI and will have stored me out of jail. I by no means instructed him I had inside details about shares and he is aware of it. All Phil needed to do was publicly say it. He refused.
The result price me my freedom, tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} and a heartbreak I nonetheless battle with each day. Whereas I used to be in jail, my daughter dedicated suicide-I nonetheless imagine I may have saved her if I’d been on the surface.
Whereas this excerpt focuses solely on our betting relationship, my e-book explores how Phil finagled his approach out of not one, however two circumstances that led to prison convictions. As my e-book makes clear, Phil shouldn’t be at all times the individual he appears to be.
Billy Walters was convicted of insider buying and selling in 2017. He served 5 years in a federal jail and was sentenced to pay a $10 million fantastic. –Golf Digest