$10m giving old foes feud for thought
PHIL MICKELSON’S revelation that the most lucrative match-play contest in history is in the pipeline – a $10million shoot-out with Tiger Woods – confirms both the enduring appeal of the two old foes and how mercenary the sport can be.
There is nothing that furthers either man’s legacy in such a proposition, merely something green that fills bank accounts.
The shoot-out would have taken place last week if the deal had been signed off in time. It wasn’t, but if the dots can be joined it will eventually take place later this year.
It is hard to blame either for signing up – it would take a deeply puritanical strain for someone to turn down $10m to play a round of golf. But there is something unseemly about two very rich sportsmen (assuming Mickelson’s gambling and Woods’s divorce hasn’t wiped them both out) making themselves even richer.
Even Mickelson admits the amount of money is “ridiculous”. The prize fund for the Open Championship – split between 156 players – is only $250,000 higher.
The idea of the made-for-TV cash-a-thon is not a new one. The re-runs of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, in which top players from yesteryear went head-to-head on courses around the world are still airing.
The original show ran from 1961-70 before it was revived in 1994 for nine more years, with Nick Faldo playing Greg Norman at Sunningdale and Jack Nicklaus taking on Arnold Palmer at Pinehurst for $150,000. Decent money but the Skins Game, a fourman event on the PGA Tour which ran from 1983 to 2008 after the close of the official season, was better.
Norman won $1m in the 2001 edition against Woods, Colin Montgomerie and Jesper Parnevik, and in 11 appearances overall Fred Couples trousered $3.5 m.
There have been various other lucrative events since, including mixed events and a cross-generational challenge. Different formats; a common denominator of cash.
Six years ago Woods lost to Rory McIlroy in the $3m Duel at Lake Jinsha in China, which dipped golf’s toe into TV pay-per-view.
Now, it seems, the staged shoot-out is about to resurface with the world No 20 taking on the world No 67 for $10m. If this was about pure golf, it should be the world No 1 Dustin Johnson against world No 2 Justin Thomas – but of course it isn’t.
Woods and Mickelson, with 19 Majors between them, are not today’s pre-eminent players but, as arch-rivals and friction-heavy Ryder Cup team-mates, have a bankable history. For most of their careers they could not stand each other but time and their fading powers have thawed that relationship.
Sponsors and TV are interested but even with Mickelson dangling the carrot of both being miked up so the viewers can hear their trash talk, I’m not.
Maybe if they were playing for their own money…
It’s purely to fill bank accounts