A Thanksgiving golf feast
Woods-Mickelson winner-take-all match may be teed up at last
Move over, NFL and college football. Make way for a new event that reportedly is coming to Thanksgiving weekend.
It’s Tiger vs. Phil — or Phil vs. Tiger, depending on your point of view — for a boatload of money, according to ESPN.
The highly anticipated showdown between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will take place either Nov. 23 (Friday) or Nov. 24 at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, ESPN’s Mike Greenberg reported. Rumours about the winner-take-all event have been swirling for a while, with a $10-million payout figure being tossed about. ESPN reported that the purse has not yet been determined, but these guys, you know, don’t work cheap.
The event will capitalize on a relationship that has thawed after years of frosty competitiveness and it’s a nod to the fact that Woods turns 43 in December and Mickelson is 48. It’s now or never. And who doesn’t like money? “It’s a ridiculous amount of money,” Mickelson told Golf.com last month. “No matter how much money you have, this amount will take both of us out of our comfort zone.”
Masters champion Patrick Reed had perhaps the best idea: Let each guy put up his own money. Woods is No. 1 in all-time earnings and Mickelson comes in second with $87 million, according to ESPN. Woods, of course, wasn’t going for that.
“Of course that’s what he would like to see,” Woods said with a smile last month.
“I would like to see him put up that money.”
Woods and Mickelson were grouped together in the first two rounds of the Players Championship in May. Their relationship has warmed to the point where they could do a little playful trash-talking, with Mickelson suggesting a big-payday showdown.
“I love that we’re paired together, I think it’s really fun. We haven’t been paired together in years,” Mickelson said in May. “As 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: Why don’t we just bypass all the ancillary stuff of a tournament and just go head-tohead and just have kind of a highstake, winner-take-all match?”
Woods had the perfectly snarky response: “Well, first of all, big picture,” he grinned, alluding to his 14 major championships — and Mickelson’s five.