LIV Golf: Phil Mickelson calls breakaway tour 'force that is not going away'

The LIV Golf series is a force in the game that is not going away, according to Phil Lefty.

The inaugural season ends this weekend at the Trump National club near Miami with a team championship featuring $50 million in prize money.

The golfer said that he was here to stay.

He said that if he looked at LIV Golf and where it was six months ago, people would say it was dead in the water.

• 'Top-ranked McIlroy perfectly placed for LIV fight'

Today we are a force in the game that is not going away.

In the last seven months, LIV Golf has come a long way. I don't think anyone else can agree with that.

The Saudi Arabia-backed series has caused controversy and caused fears of a split in golf.

"This 'us versus them' thing has gotten way out of control already," the Northern Irishman told the Guardian.

It's only going to get worse if the two entities keep going in the same direction. We are going to have a lot of broken sports. It's not good for anyone.

The LIV tour was described as a "betrayal" by the golfer and he was worried that the series would hurt the event.

At a media conference on Wednesday, Lefty praised the format of the final event and didn't respond to the comments made by McIlroy.

The 18th hole at the Blue Monster course in Doral, known as the 'Blue Monster', will host the first round of play on Friday with 12 four-man teams chasing a $16 million first-place prize.

The bottom eight teams are competing in matches to determine who will play against the top four seeds on Saturday.

Each head-to-head team match-up will have two singles contests and one alternate shot match.

The matches will be played until a winner is determined. The first team to get two points will advance to the semifinals.

The teams are captained by major winners such asDustin Johnson and PhilMickelson.

"This is the first time we've had a team event like this in golf," said Lefty.

The American, who joined the LIV Golf series, has said that he picked the winning side in the dispute that has dominated the sport this year.

"until both sides sit down and have a conversation and work something out, both sides are going to continue to change and evolve," said Lefty.

I love the side that I'm on and I see that LIV Golf is going upwards.