The Phil and Tiger show
One’s pulled out, the other’s battling on but at the PGA it will still be...
TWO new golf books will hit the shelves this week in time for the US PGA Championship beginning at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Thursday. One is about Phil Mickelson – ‘golf’s most colourful superstar,’ according to the blurb. The other is about Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson – ‘golf’s most fascinating rivalry’.
All these years on and it is still the deadly, scandal-ridden and inordinately talented duo who continue to dominate the game’s landscape.
When the PGA Tour decided last year to introduce vast bonuses for the top-10 players who commanded the most publicity, the identity of the leading pair was guaranteed to such an extent it was a wonder they even bothered to calculate the column inches.
Mickelson will not even be in Oklahoma this week but, over three preview days at least, you can be sure that his name will get more mentions than everyone in the current world’s top five combined.
Among those who will be doing interviews tomorrow are Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa.
The attendance at all of them will probably come to about the same as the number of writers who will turn up at noon to listen to Tiger.
For almost 30 years now Tiger and Phil have appalled us and enthralled us in almost equal measure.
If you think there is no way back for Mickelson to the heart of his adoring audience after sucking up to the Saudis and alienating virtually all his peers, consider Tiger’s exalted standing these days, a decade on from the disclosure of all his marital infidelities.
Imagine if the lefty returns for the US Open next month and starts well in the only major he has never won, where he has been the bridesmaid on no fewer than six occasions?
As with Woods, we would surely discover that America can be a very forgiving nation.
Tiger and Phil, therefore, will continue to be the soundtrack of the summer. One day, the game truly will move on. But, with Phil destined to be the poster boy for the money-noobject Saudis for the foreseeable future and Tiger still evidently intent on more victories while his body allows, it clearly will not be any time soon. PAUL CASEY has withdrawn from the US PGA Championship due to an ongoing back injury. The 44-yearold has not competed since he was forced to withdraw from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March after completing just two holes of his opening match.