THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Rough around Mickelson keeps getting thicker

Things are heating up at the PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy served notice to the field that his game is in order Thursday, carding 5-under-par to grab the early lead on a tough Southern Hills layout in suburban Tulsa.

McElroy in the spotlight is ironic, far beyond this first-day scoring, which we’ll touch on later.

The truth at this major tournament, however warm the competition, is that the place — and people’s opinions — were boiling before the first shot was struck.

Yes, of course, it’s ALL about the defending champion who is not on the premises.

Phil Mickelson.

The once-upon-a-time “people’s champ,” Mickelson has incredibly gone from controversial to confusing to stuck firmly in bed with the murderous regime of Saudi Arabia.

Worse, it might be too late to break off the affair with a guy like Muhammed bin Salman — a gentleman whose loyalty can disappear with unpleasant consequences.

IT SEEMS like forever, but it was only a year ago that Phil defeated time and a rugged field to win the PGA at Kiawah Island.

He became, at 50, the oldest player to win a major — after failing to win any tournament at all since 2013.

You’d think that Kiawah victory and the celebrations that went with it would have catapulted Mickelson to a spot matched perhaps by only his generational rival, Tiger Woods.

Instead, Phil has found himself lost in the desert.

Literally.

He’s always lived (and played golf) on the edge, but this time Lefty appears to have fallen a long, long way.

First, he chummed it up with Greg Norman, and provided some legal help in setting up the Saudi Golf League — a fantastically rich affair that is intended to compete with the PGA Tour.

To say that did not sit well with the PGA or many of his Tour competitors would be an understatement.

McIlroy blasted Phil in blistering terms like greedy and arrogant, and plenty of his fellow golfers scoffed at Mickelson’s explanation — that he simply wanted leverage to improve the PGA Tour.

Quite a few of his colleagues told reporters (and others) that this was simply a shot at pocketing gobs of Saudi oil money.

Here was the world’s largest sand trap, and when Phil tried to talk his way out of it, well …

He’s been an awful lot better with his wedge.

PERHAPS Phil grasped how this love affair with the cash-drenched Saudi tour was being perceived.

The PGA Tour, for its part, denied all requests for exemptions to play for bin Salman’s money.

Scrambling to get himself out of a mess, Phil called Alan Shipnuck, a longtime golf journalist who is about to release an unauthorized biography of him.

There are plenty of unsavory items in the book, including Mickelson’s possible loss of $40 million gambling between 2010 and 2014, what appeared to be the forced sale of his beloved Gulfstream aircraft, and multiple dealings with a felon named Billy Walters — who is about to write his OWN book now that he's out of prison.

Maybe, it seemed, Mickelson REALLY needed money.

In any event, Phil’s explanation of the Saudi connection did him no favors.

“They’re scary motherf*ers to get involved with,” he told Shipnuck.

“We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and they have a horrible record on human rights.

“They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it?

“Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.

“They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse.”

THERE is certainly some truth in the charge that the PGA Tour can bully its players — for instance, holding all media rights to their exploits.

The NFL does the same thing, by the way, but its players are not freelance contractors like pro golfers.

Nevertheless, Mickelson’s crusade to fix things by making himself and few other top players a few zillion in Saudi money landed like a drive hit 50 yards out of bounds.

Behind a thousand-foot sand dune.

Phil now has almost completely retreated from public view, skipping The Masters (which he adores, and has won three times) and now declining to defend his title at the PGA Championship.

Some of his friends, on and off the Tour, wish he would face the media, apologize as best he can, and ask fans to forgive him.

Which they very well might, but …

Any view of Phil Mickelson over the long-term may have taken a fatal hit.

Asked by ESPN about possible damage to Mickelson’s eventual legacy, Tour star Justin Thomas gave a short answer.

“I think that speaks for itself,” he said.

Sadly, it does.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times per week. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published monthly during the offseason, and weekly beginning in October.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”