Callaway, Workday join other companies in distancing themselves from Phil Mickelson

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Workday has joined the list of Phil Mickelson’s sponsors who have dropped the golfer after his controversial statements and involvement with a prospective Saudi-backed golf league.

“At this time, Workday and Phil Mickelson have mutually and amicably agreed to not renew our brand sponsorship that ends this March,” a Workday spokeperson told Golf Digest on Friday. “We want to thank Phil for his great contributions as a Workday ambassador, both on and off the course. And we continue to wish him and his family all the best.”

Workday, which has featured Mickelson as a representative since April 2017, joined KPMG and Heineken/Amstel in dropping Mickelson, 51, after he released a statement Tuesday afternoon acknowledging the comments he made in a November interview to golf author Alan Shipnuck were “reckless.” Mickelson said he would be taking “some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.” Mickelson, in his words, also said he gave his partners “the option to pause or end the relationship as I understand it might be necessary given the current circumstances.”

Shortly following his statement Tuesday, KPMG—one of Mickelson’s primary and longtime financial backers—announced it ended its relationship with the six-time major winner.

“KPMG U.S. and Phil Mickelson have mutually agreed to end our sponsorship effective immediately. We wish him the best,” read a statement from a company spokesperson. “KPMG continues to sponsor brand ambassadors on the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour and is the title sponsor of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major on the LPGA Tour.”

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Heineken, the parent company of Amstel, said the beer giant had let Mickelson go. “We made the decision to go our separate ways and end Amstel Light’s partnership with Phil Mickelson,” the spokesperson said. “We wish him all the best.”

Mickelson came under fire for justifying his relationship with the Saudi government—a regime Mickelson conceded that had a “horrible human rights record” and excutes “people over there for being gay”—as a means of leverage against the PGA Tour.

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