Phil Mickelson Becomes Yet Another Player To Go In On Brandel Chamblee

Golf.com — Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee has long spoken his mind about Phil Mickelson.

But how does Mickelson feel about Chamblee?

“He and I don’t see eye to eye on anything,” Mickelson said in a profile in the August issue of GOLF.

Asked if there was history between the two, the five-time major winner told GOLF’s Alan Shipnuck, “I just like people who build up the game. I view this as we’re all in the game of golf together. We all want to grow the game. We all want to make it better. And I feel like he’s made his commentating career on denigrating others. And I don’t care for that. I like people who help build the sport up and promote it for what it is, rather than tearing down and ridiculing others.”

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Another day, another player going in on golf analyst Brandel Chamblee. It’s easy to look at what the players you love say, take their word as gospel, and think “well if they hate him, fuck it, I hate him too.” But that’s a dumbass way to look at it. We’ve had Brandel on the show two or three times now and asked him specifically about this. Asked him about the fact that many players openly show their dislike towards him. Billy Horschel called Brandel a “ghost on the range.” You know Brandel’s reaction? “Exactly.”

His goal isn’t to be buddy/buddy with everybody. His goal is to form and deliver objective opinions and analysis on players and if keeping a certain distance allows him to do that best, then that’s what he’ll do (and does). His goal is not to chat it up with players and coaches and agents about what players are working on and then deliver to the public exactly what said players/coaches/agents want delivered. His goal and job isn’t to focus only on the positive and talk everybody up in the hope they’ll like him and give him access. He doesn’t give a fuck about that and he doesn’t give a fuck what people or the players think about him.

Tiger hates him. Phil hates him. Horschel hates him. Dufner hates him.

But I love him. Yes there are some things I’ve battled with him over. We’ve gotten into it multiple times because I was right and he was wrong. I called him a clown one time. It felt good. I was right. Trent told him: “Fuck off, Brandel.” It was the best moment of Trent’s life.

But at the end of the day, Brandel says what he believes, backs it up with DEEP research and statistics, and doesn’t give a fuck what anybody else thinks. Some people love that and some people hate it. It’s not for everyone’s personal taste but it is great for golf analysis. That’s why he’s the best in the business.

I can love Brandel and Phil and Tiger and Dufner and hate Billy Horschel all at the same time. It’s a real shame not everybody appears to have that kind of brain capacity.

PS — “My role is analyst, not cheerleader”