Woods-Mickelson face-off could be a winner
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson may be headed toward a two-man competition with a $10 million, winner-take-all prize, according to recent reports.
I like both Woods and Mickelson despite their offcourse controversies — Woods for his absolute mastery of the game and Mickelson for his humanity on the course. Who among us hasn’t wanted to swing as hard as Woods or take a slap at an errant putt as Mickelson did at Shinnecock? This match would draw a huge viewership — but I wish they wouldn’t play it. It has the odor of a couple of pasttheir-prime stars milking the last big dollars out of their careers.
There have been many memorable head-to-head competitions in professional golf, but they mostly have occurred within the context of a larger golf tournament. Think of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in the 1962 and 1964 U.S. Opens, Tom Watson and Nicklaus at the 1977 British Open, or Payne Stewart and Mickelson in the 1999 U.S. Open.
There is at least one precedent, however, for a made-for-TV battle between aging golf superstars.
In a 1994 reprise of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, three matches were held. The first, between Fred Couples and Raymond Floyd, was played in the Caribbean; the second, with Nick Faldo and Greg Norman, was in England; and in the third, 54year-old Nicklaus and 62-yearold Palmer squared off in a match at Pinehurst with prize money of $100,000 for the winner and $50,000 for the loser. Nicklaus won, shooting 67 to Palmer’s 74.
Nevertheless, if Woods and Mickelson do play, here are a few suggestions. Play match play. Medal play pits the players against the golf course, with the winner being the player who manages the course the best. Match play pits the players against each other, requiring not only great shots but effective competitive strategy. Think of the pressures we see on the last day of Ryder Cup singles matches. Play on a public golf course. The majority of golfers play on public courses, so play where they play. There are some worthy courses to choose from, including the high-end public resort courses like Pebble Beach and Pinehurst. Or how about a top muni like San Francisco’s Harding Park, or good university courses at Duke, Georgia and Yale? Play for your own money. Networks and corporate sponsors undoubtedly will be lining up to ante up the prize money. But where’s the real competition in that? Let’s have a match where the players have some skin in the game. You bet I would watch a match between Woods and Mickelson with $10 million out of the loser’s pocket at stake. Play for charity, and take that odor of exploitation away. Penury is not on the horizon for the loser. If the money goes to the winner’s charities, now we’ve got even more people with a stake in the outcome watching the match. Wear microphones. Golf fans want to hear the players as well as see them. Directional microphones that pick up player-caddie conversations on TV are a big hit. Let us get to know their games even better by letting us hear more of the strategizing, shot choices and club selections. And trash talking between these two golfers is said to be nonstop. Let us hear it.
Tiger is 42, Phil is 48. Yes, Nicklaus was 46 when he won the 1986 Masters and I know in golf that hope springs eternal for all of us. But realistically, career twilight is on the horizon for both of them. A new generation of players, like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose, is staking out the top of the leader boards.
So though Phil and Tiger continue to compete on the PGA tour, they now should be thinking about how to leave it. They have each brought so much pleasure to golf fans over their great careers. A classy big-dollar match for charity would be a nice way to tee up the late stages of their competitive golf careers.