Phil Mickelson's college coaching career is over before it ever really got off the ground.
In November, Arizona State announced that Mickelson would join its coaching staff as an assistant under his brother and head coach Tim Mickelson. The move was largely a recruiting ploy, with Phil responsible for making calls to prospective golfers on an interim basis until Tim could fill the position with a full-time hire.
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But Lefty barely lasted two months.
"Yes, I recently got fired from that position," Phil told reporters Wednesday, laughing about the situation before the Phoenix Open.
A few days before ASU announced Mickelson's hire, Ryan Ruffels, a 16-year-old American-born amateur living in Australia, tweeted that he had just received a call from the five-time major winner.
When Phil Mickelson calls you out of nowhere 😳 #realtalk #whatjusthappened
— Ryan Ruffels (@RRuffels) November 5, 2014
That, apparently, necessitated Phil's official title to be sure his brother's program would be clear of any NCAA recruiting violations.
"We had developed a plan to where I could call some recruits," Phil said. "We weren't really going to say anything and hadn't said anything for a few weeks until one of the players had tweeted it and it looked like there were some improprieties, which there weren't.
"So we had to publicly announce I was assistant coach, otherwise I wouldn't be able to make the phone calls I had been making. As of the first week of January, Tim needed, my brother, needed a real assistant to help out with a bunch of the things going on with the traveling and I got fired."
Tim Mickelson has since filled the assistant position with a full-time hire. This time, there was no announcement from Arizona State.