Amid lawsuit news, Mickelson starts strong

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Playing the course where he's far and away the fan favorite, Phil Mickelson kept his focus on golf Thursday as the Waste Management Phoenix Open got underway. The chatter elsewhere, though, was of an entirely different matter. Mickelson's name made headlines Thursday not for golf reasons but rather for a lawsuit he filed last week against an Internet service provider in Canada related to defamation. Mickelson, 41, submitted the lawsuit in Montreal on Jan. 25 against Videotron S.E.N.C. in an attempt to learn the identity of a person who posted defamatory remarks about him online. The lawsuit claims an individual made comments on Yahoo! Sports alleging Mickelson's wife had an affair and Mickelson had fathered an illegitimate child. The lawsuit seeks to force Videotron to reveal the identity of the user so that Mickelson might "stop the dissemination of false and wrongful statements and obtain reparation for the prejudice already suffered." Speaking after the first round at TPC Scottsdale on Thursday, Mickelson did not speak in depth about the matter but made it clear he won't tolerate being victimized by anonymous persons online. "I'm all for freedom of speech, but I won't tolerate defamation," Mickelson said. "I've got a great attorney, Glenn Cohen, who's on it." Cohen, a Jacksonville-based attorney, commented on the lawsuit in an Associated Press story and said he expects to receive the desired information soon. He also noted that Mickelson is not concerned with any precedent the lawsuit could set for other victims of such anonymous defamation online. "If we can stop one person, then it's one less person who can get away with this," Cohen said. "Maybe it will have a chilling effect. I don't know. If other people are victims of this and want to take up the mantra, that's fine. It was a very narrow decision Phil and I made to discover this person's identity and stop it." With the legal matters out of mind Thursday, Mickelson opened the Phoenix Open with a first-round 68 to finish the day 3-under. Playing in the morning's marquee group with Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, Mickelson notched four birdies and a bogey. "It wasn't the best ball-striking today," Mickelson said. "I hit a few shots in the rough, and the rough was tough. I made a couple mistakes, but I was able to salvage a lot of the round through the short game." An Arizona State alumnus, Mickelson is typically the tournament's most popular player. He's become the unofficial face of the tournament and is playing this year in his 23rd consecutive Phoenix Open, 24th overall. He won the event in 1996 and 2005. "It's really cool the way the people here have treated me and the community feel that I get every time I come back here," Mickelson said. "I lived here 12 years, I met my wife here, we had our first two children here, and it's a very special place in our hearts." The Associated Press contributed to this report.