Woods and Mickelson paired together to start Players Championship
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Their relationship has been softened by age. The needle is sharp as ever. Never mind that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have only five victories between them over the last five years. It’s a big deal when the two best players of their generation are in the same group at any tournament, much less The Players Championship.
Mickelson, of course, wanted something even better.
“I look at the cover of the newspaper and the pairing is on there and the excitement that’s been going on around here, it gets me thinking,” Mickelson said Tuesday. “Why don’t we just bypass all the ancillary stuff of a tournament and just go head-to-head and just have kind of a high-stakes, winner-take all match.”
Lefty was just getting warmed up.
“Now, I don’t know if he wants a piece of me,” he said, pausing for laughter, “but I just think it would be something that would be really fun for us to do, and I think there would be a lot of interest in it if we just went straight to the final round.” Or maybe not. They have played as a twosome in the final group just twice in their careers, and Woods won both times — in 2005 at Doral to return to No. 1 in the world, and in 2001 at the Masters when he completed his sweep of the majors.
So when Woods was told about Mickelson’s jab questioning whether he wanted a piece of him, Woods knew exactly where to go.
“First of all, big picture,” Woods said as his smile widened. When a reporter thought Woods meant their record while playing in the same group — amazingly, it is 16-16-4 — Woods cut him off.
“How many times have we won on tour?” he said.
They have never been particularly close in the record book.
Woods has a 79-43 lead in PGA Tour victories, and is ahead 14-5 in major titles.
Matt Kuchar once told a story about how Mickelson would be dishing out his best material in the team room at the Ryder Cup, and if he ever didn’t have a comeback, he would simply reveal how many majors he has won to shut up the room — but not without surveying his audience.
“He can only say that if Tiger’s not around,” Kuchar said. “He has to look over both shoulders and make sure, because then Tiger gives him his number.”
Mainly because of Woods, Mickelson has never been PGA Tour player of the year, has never been No. 1 in the world and has never won the money title.
They were never particularly close off the course, either.
Both will say that their relationship was overblown in the media, and there might be some truth to that. They lived on opposite ends of the country and had different lifestyles for so much of their careers. They got along fine because both are professionals, but it was never more than that.
Today, the rivalry continues at Sawgrass.