Tiger is the best player I’ve seen, says Mickelson

THE last time Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson walked the fairways at the Players Championship together was in the third round in 2001, when the former had three majors on his mantelpiece and was a month away from making it four at the Masters to complete the Tiger Slam. ‘It sucked playing with him back then, it really did,’ said Mickelson, opening up for perhaps the first time in his career on what it was like facing Woods in his prime. ‘I kept thinking: “How on earth am I ever going to beat him?”’ Mickelson has always been a marvellous talker but never about his great rival. This is the first time they have been grouped together in the first two rounds of a regular PGA Tour event for 20 years. While partly down to organisers not wanting to put all their eggs in one basket, there was also the fact the pair couldn’t stand one another. Thankfully, age has brought about a considerable mellowing in both men and it was an eye-opener listening to Mickelson on Tiger circa the turn of the century. ‘For anybody today who didn’t witness it, I say to them I don’t think we will ever see that level of play again,’ he said. ‘It was the most remarkable golf in the history of the game and, I think, unrepeatable. I regard what he did at the 2000 US Open (Tiger won by 15 shots at Pebble Beach) as the greatest golf I’ve ever witnessed and that 12-month stretch thereafter as the best that’s been played.’ Mickelson managed to win five majors in the Tiger era — the next best — and hasn’t given up hope of adding to his tally. At 47, he’s playing as well as he has for the past decade. At the US Open next month, he’ll try to complete the career Grand Slam at the major where he has been a luckless runner-up six times. Before all that, we’ll get the rare privilege of watching both men stride side by side at Sawgrass, at a time in life where they retain enough of the magic to suggest there are one or two golden days still ahead. Not to mention enough of an edge. ‘I’ve had the beating of him the last few times we’ve played,’ smiled Mickelson. ‘Big picture, though, who’s had the most wins?’ countered Tiger. Woods experienced one of the worst putting performances of his career last week but here the faster greens will suit him. Three of his seven events this year have also been in Florida, and he has finished top 12 each time. ‘Sure, my expectations are rising,’ said Woods, ‘but I still can’t help but think back 12 months when I could barely walk, and feel truly thankful I could actually be here and teeing off alongside Phil.’