CNN —
Phil Mickelson considered a $400,000 bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup – an event he was playing in – according to a book that will be released later this month by professional gambler Billy Walters.
An excerpt was published Thursday by Fire Pit Collective and Golf Digest.
In the excerpt, Walters said he was in what he calls a gambling partnership with Mickelson for five years, and that it ended in the spring of 2014.
Walters said that after that partnership ended, he learned a lot more about the golfer’s sports gambling from “two very reliable sources,” but he does not identify them.
Citing his own betting records and additional records provided by his sources, Walters alleges that Mickelson, between 2010 and 2014, “made a staggering 7,065 wagers on football, basketball, and baseball.” The excerpt also includes this line: “In 2011 alone, he made 3,154 bets—an average of nearly nine per day.”
“Based on our relationship and what I’ve since learned from others, Phil’s gambling losses approached not $40 million as has been previously reported, but much closer to $100 million,” Walters wrote. “In all, he wagered a total of more than $1 billion during the past three decades.
CNN has not been able to independently verify these claims.
“The only other person I know who surpassed that kind of volume,” Walters wrote, “is me.”
Additionally, Walters alleges that Mickelson called him in September 2012 to ask him to bet $400,000 on the US team to beat Europe in the Ryder Cup. Mickelson was a member of that US squad.
Walters writes in the book that he answered: “Have you lost your f—— mind? Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose? You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer. You’d risk all that for this? I want no part of it.”
According to the excerpt, Mickelson replied, “Alright, alright.”
Walters also wrote he doesn’t know if Mickelson ever placed that bet. Europe went on to beat the US.
The PGA Tour declined to comment. CNN has reached out to representation for Mickelson for comment.
In a social media post dated June 2, Mickelson said in response to someone else’s post, “Haven’t gambled in years. Almost a billionaire now.”
Mickelson’s gambling has been covered by the media in the past, and Mickelson himself previously has talked about his struggles with sports gambling.
In June 2022, Mickelson told Sports Illustrated: “Gambling has been part of my life ever since I can remember. But about a decade ago is when I would say it became reckless. It’s embarrassing. I don’t like that people know. The fact is I’ve been dealing with it for some time.”
In that interview last year, Mickelson added that his wife, Amy, has been very supportive “with me and the process.”
“We’re at place after many years where I feel comfortable with where that is,” Mickelson continued in the Sports Illustrated interview. “It isn’t a threat to me or my financial security. It was just a number of poor decisions.”
In 2017, Walters was convicted on insider trading charges and served five years in federal prison. He also paid a $10 million fine. Former President Donald Trump commuted Walters’ sentence in 2021.
Walters suggested in the book, according to Golf Digest, that Mickelson was to blame for the prison sentence.
“Phil Mickelson, one of the most famous people in the world and a man I once considered a friend, refused to tell a simple truth that he shared with the FBI and could have kept me out of prison,” Walters wrote. “I never told him I had inside information about stocks and he knows it. All Phil had to do was publicly say it. He refused.”