Multimillionaire golfer Phil Mickelson sorry for lamenting his mere eight-figure disposable income

Veteran professional golfer Phil Mickelson made nearly $48 million last year for hitting a little white ball off the grass. It is something that, admittedly, he does very well. But, as far as manual labor goes, it is a pretty nice gig.

One would think that Mickelson, and his fellow professional golfers, would marvel at being so blessed for getting compensated so well for doing a job that millions of Americans pay a handsome amount of money every year to do as their source of recreation.

You would be wrong. Instead, this weekend Mickelson publicly mulled an early retirement, because of the crushing tax burden that will leave him destitute with a mere eight figures per year in disposable income.

That's correct. Mickelson has seen the political landscape shift in both his home state (California) and his nation, and he apparently is a bit miffed about it:

The 42-year-old golfer said he would talk in more detail about his plans -- possibly moving away from California or even retiring from golf -- before his hometown Farmers Insurance Open, the San Diego-area event that starts Thursday at Torrey Pines.

"I'm not sure what exactly, you know, I'm going to do yet," Mickelson said. "I'll probably talk about it more in depth next week. I'm not going to jump the gun, but there are going to be some. There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn't work for me right now. So I'm going to have to make some changes."

Between Sunday and today, however, someone clearly put in Mickelson's ear the radical notion that a guy who plays golf as a career, and has quite possibly earned a quarter of a billion dollars in his career for doing so, is probably not the most sympathetic vehicle for such a personal tax revolt. That, or someone told him that the 47 percent plays golf and buys gear, too. Either way, Mickelson's initial complaint was only in the public conversation for hours before he began a quick and measured retreat.

More on his reversal, and why his original statement was completely asinine to begin with, just past the fold.