Mickelson fired by brother as assistant coach for Arizona State golf team

Phil Mickelson's time at Arizona St. has come to an end.

Lefty announced Wednesday he's no longer involved with coaching at his alma mater.

"I recently got fired from that position," Mickelson announced at a press conference, as reported by Ryan Ballengee from Yahoo Sports.

Mickelson's main role was to assist Arizona State head coach Tim - who also happens to be his brother - in recruiting 16-year-old Ryan Ruffels. He admits the pair intended to keep the hiring tight-lipped, but following Ruffels proclamation on Twitter that Mickelson had contacted him led to the official announcement in order to escape penalty from the NCAA.

"We had developed a plan to where I could call some recruits," Mickelson 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."