New York | Phil Mickelson, who has not played competitively since he made incendiary remarks supporting a Saudi-backed golf league that hopes to rival the established PGA Tour, will end his self-imposed layoff later this week by playing in the first event of the upstart LIV Golf circuit.

Mickelson, the winner of six major golf championships including last year’s PGA Championship, when he became the oldest golfer to win a major, will be one of 48 players competing for $US25 million ($35 million) in prize money when the tournament begins on Thursday at the Centurion Club near London.