Lefty says prime-time battle against Tiger will be ‘easiest $10 mil I’ve ever made’
On a day Phil Mickelson joined Twitter, details of the ballyhooed Thanksgiving weekend match between him and Tiger Woods have emerged.
Mickelson joined Twitter shortly before teeing off in his pro-am round for the Northern Trust Wednesday afternoon and by the time he finished the round, he had more than 53,000 followers.
One person who’s not yet following Mickelson is Woods, though as Mickelson finished his pro-am round, Woods had tweeted an image of the match stating, “It’s on.’’
Interestingly, in the image, Woods was swinging a left-handed driver — perhaps a tweak of Mickelson, who’s a lefty.
“For many years, he’s gotten the better of me, but that Friday night it’s going to be the easiest 10 mil (actually $9 million) I’ve ever made,’’ Mickelson said with a big smile.
Asked about the pre-match smack talk, Mickelson said, “I’m OK at it. I’m not opposed to it at all. But we have plenty of time to do that, and I’ve got to be careful because I’m hoping we are teammates in the Ryder Cup and I don’t want to cause a stir yet. But in the first week of October it will start to heat up.’’
WarnerMedia’s Turner division announced Wednesday the match will be hosted by MGM Resorts International at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. The winner will walk away with $9 million, winner take all.
It will be a pay-per-view event with, according to Mickelson, the players and caddies mic’d up and with the players making side bets during the match involving closest to the pin, long drive, up-anddowns and putting.
HBO Sports, like it does leading up to big boxing matches, will televise a 24/7 show involving the two players. The live pay-per-view coverage of the event will be distributed through Turner’s B/R Live, the company’s new premium live sports streaming service. Directv will offer on-demand platforms.
“It’s an opportunity for us to bring golf to the masses in prime time
during a period where we don’t have much going on in the world of golf,’’ Mickelson said. “It allows us to be a little bit more real, if you will. We’re going to be mic’d up. We think there will be some pretty good interest but we’re also trying to present it in a way that you don’t get to see with normal TV.”
Dustin Johnson, the Northern Trust defending champion, is one of three players who’s won three times on Tour this season. This is the third consecutive year that Johnson, who has 19 career wins, has won at least three tournaments. He, too, has won at least one tournament in each of the past 11 years.
Asked if he ever takes winning for granted, Johnson said, “I’ve always said it’s very hard to win on Tour. There’s so many guys. Every guy in the field legitimately has a chance to win. That’s why it’s so hard to win out here on Tour. And it doesn’t matter what week you’re playing, what tournament it is, it’s difficult to win.’’
Johnson and Brooks Koepka have more in common than their ungodly length off the tee. Both possess an expressionless look on the golf course that suggests nothing bothers them. Both contend that’s not the case.
“I’m fired up all the time; I just don’t let you guys [reporters] see it,’’ Johnson said.
Said Koepka: “It probably looks like I could care less, but sometimes I do run hot and I can be excited. I just won’t show it to anybody because I don’t want anybody to know.’’