US golfer Phil Mickelson has apologised for supporting a new Saudi Arabian golf league despite branding Saudis ‘scary motherf***ers’ and admitting ‘they killed Jamal Khashoggi and execute gay people’.

Mickelson, 51, had said he supported the new league because it would give US golfers ‘a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape’ how the Professional Golf Association (PGA) operates.

In a statement last night in response to a backlash caused by his comments, Mickelson acknowledged he had been ‘reckless and offensive’ but stuck to his guns on the future of the game…

Mickelson last night claimed his comments on Saudi Arabian human rights abuses were ‘off the record’ and ‘shared out of context and without my consent’ – though the article’s author Alan Shipnuck has denied this.