Now if that doesn't serve as a much needed oasis of calm, then I don't know what can for the avid golf fan.

In these unprecedented and unpredictable times, at least the golfing calendar can offer some distraction from the news and the horrors which are occurring in the Ukraine right now.

Spring is in the process of springing, the thermometer is slowly beginning to rise and the golf season is starting to get into its stride. The end of March moving into the beginning of April is one of my favourite times of the year, not just because the golf on the TV moves into a different gear, but it means shorts are not far away too.

Getting Masters ready

Everyone is getting ready for the Masters now, well almost everyone. It appears that Phil Mickelson’s self-imposed sabbatical continues, meaning that the three-time Masters winner will not be driving up Azalea Drive in three weeks’ time. All because he seriously misjudged his level of importance, the confidentiality of an interview and the emotive response from the wider golfing public.

He was to be one of the highest profile players that was going to defect to the LIV Golf Saudi backed Tour, but it appears that he was wanting to leverage his involvement with the LIV group in order to get or affect change within the PGA Tour to his own benefit. He's been having a long-standing argument with the PGA Tour about the media rights of his own image; he claims that he's had to pay over $1,000,000 to use photos taken of him whilst playing PGA Tour events. Something that is a little high in cost, but he has signed a contract with the PGA Tour, as has every other professional, and the PGA Tour has the rights to these images because it's their events.

It appears that he has used the Saudi backed group as a negotiating tool for his own purposes, entering into an agreement with one party while misrepresenting himself and his intentions, to play one organisation off against the other. Other journalists have been writing about how you can get on one day good Phil and on another day bad Phil. They've also mentioned that whenever Phil walks into a room he believes that he is the smartest person in the room, which normally without fail is a pretty stupid thing to do.

Misjudged action

The consequence of these misjudged actions is that he is taking a rest from golf to work on himself so that he can come back a better person. Which at face value is very admirable, however it does smack a little bit of how the PGA Tour suspend players. Everyone knew that Dustin Johnson was taking his ‘break’ due to testing positive for cocaine so it's not such a large leap to think that Michelson’s self-imposed sabbatical could actually be a gentle push from the PGA Tour to say you're not welcome to play for a little while.

This means the Masters will be without him for the first time in a long while. Will he be missed, probably not, as he hasn't contended the title for sometime now.

It provides a big reminder to all golfers the game is always bigger than the individual who is playing it.

Will I be watching the Masters? You bet, I wouldn’t miss it the for the world.