Phil Mickelson displayed his elite winning mentality during his private conversations with LIV Golf star Brendan Steele, who went on to claim a mammoth tournament win with the Saudi-backed league. The former PGA Tour ace joined the rebel league last year after discussing the possibility with the six-time major champion, having later joined Mickelson's HyFlyers GC team.
Steele, 41, won the LIV Golf Adelaide tournament in April earlier this year, and during his appearance on the Fairway To Heaven podcast with Jerry Foltz and Su-Ann Heng, the golfer waxed lyrical about Mickelson and the mentorship he's received from the golf legend down the years.
"Phil is a hero of mine and a mentor. He's helped me on and off the course for the last 15 years now and he's always been super generous with his time and knowledge which has always been amazing for me through ups and downs that I've had over my career," Steele said.
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The opportunity to be on the same time as Mickelson was an "incredible" experience for Steele, who revealed his private chats with 'Lefty' before his triumph at Adelaide saw his mentality shift into someone that believes they're going to win. "We're always working together at home and trying to get better and a lot of work that we did in the off-season this year was stuff that paid off at Adelaide.
"It's not things that you're doing the week before, it's stuff you're doing six months before to try and get better and move yourself forward. He's helped me with so many things, even that week, we stayed in a house together and we walked out for coffee every morning, and Saturday and Sunday we had big chats before the round.
"He was asking me, 'how are you feeling today?' And I said, 'I'm feeling good, I'm thinking if I can do this and if I can do that...' He's like, 'yeah that's great, but let's change the if into I will do this, I will do that, like I will play free, it will be good enough'. Just reframe that a little bit because he said 'frame it in a way that'll make you successful'."
Having been a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, it was the prospect of joining Mickelson at LIV that was a turning point in his decision to depart the Tour in 2023. "So if I was ever going to come, it was always going to be with Phil and with Cameron [Tringale] - because Cameron has been a close friend of mine for a long time too," he admitted.
"So we had been playing some golf together - the three of us - and Cameron had asked me, 'would you ever come?' And I'm like, 'if I was going to, it would be with you guys, so if there was ever an opportunity, I'd love to know about it.
"And Phil called and he just said, 'look, I wanted to run something by you before I went any different direction, I wasn't sure if you would be interested or whatever'. We just talked it out and I thought this is too good an opportunity to pass up as far as picking Phil's brain, travelling the world, having a team – everything that lined up was like, 'this is a perfect opportunity, I can't pass on it'."
