Mickelson sues to find online attacker

Phil Mickelson has filed a lawsuit against an Internet service provider in Canada to learn the identity of a person who has been posting ''vexatious statements'' that the four-time major champion says is a deliberate attack on his reputation. In his lawsuit against Videotron S.E.N.C in Quebec Superior Court, Mickelson cited comments posted on Yahoo! Sports from Nov. 11-12, in which one or more persons under the pseudonyms ''Fogroller'' and ''Longtitude'' made statements that allege, among other things, that Mickelson's wife had an affair and that he fathered an illegitimate child. Mickelson says he is a victim of defamation. He is asking the court to force Videotron to identify the person so Mickelson can ''stop the dissemination of false and wrongful statements ... and obtain reparation for the prejudice already suffered.'' The motion was filed in Montreal on Jan. 25. Mickelson, 41, was said to have brushed off the subscriber's initial comments last fall that suggested Mickelson did not deserve his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. But Mickelson drew the line when the seemingly harmless critiques turned into personal attacks on him and his wife, Amy, who is recovering from breast cancer. "Frankly, we've had enough," Mickelson's attorney, Glenn Cohen, told The Globe and Mail in a telephone interview Wednesday. "[They] started talking about his illegitimate kid in Columbus, Ohio, which doesn't exist, [and] started talking about his wife sleeping with Michael Jordan, [which] never happened. It was vicious," Cohen said. Mickelson, who has 39 career PGA victories, first filed a complaint against Yahoo! in California, prompting the internet giant to hand over information on the subscriber, including the name of the Quebec-based service provider. NewsCore contributed to this report.