The Manila Times

No one should be surprised.

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Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson out a bogey. Mickelson account for 25 percent of those made an 8- foot par victories. putt on the 17th hole Saturday. Otherwise, his longest putt for par during that stretch was 4 feet.

But it’s harder than looks.

Mickelson turns 49 this summer, and one of the most underrated qualities has been his health. He revealed in the summer of 2010 that he was dealing with psoriatic arthritis. Otherwise, his injuries have been either m ino r While too one-sided to be a rivalry, they have been a powerful onetwo punch in golf. The same day Woods won his third straight U.S. Amateur right before he turned pro, Mickelson won the World Series of Golf at Firestone. Woods picked up his 80th career victory at the Tour Championsh­ip to end last season. Mickelson won his 44th at Pebble Beach on Monday.

If anything raises eyebrows, it’s that Mickelson believes their trophy collection will keep growing.

“I just believe that, even today, if I play my best, if Tiger plays his best, it’s good enough to win on any week,” Mickelson said. “And the challenge is there are so many great young players, and so many great players in the game today, that it takes our best to win. I just think that both myself and Tiger are going to have a really, really good year this year.”

Nothing changes the outlook like winning, and Mickelson made it look easy on the weekend at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

He recovered from consecutiv­e bogeys along the ocean, when the wind and rain were at their worst,

- (left wrist from Oakmont’s rough in 2007) or temporary (broken leg from skiing in 1994).

“The challenge is getting myself to play my best,” Mickelson said.

Woods is 43 with eight surgeries behind him — four on his left knee, four on his lower back.

His comeback last year is why expectatio­ns are so high now. Woods played well in Florida last year, took a dip in the late spring and then kept getting better until winning the Tour Championsh­ip the way he won so many other tournament­s. He built a lead over 54 holes and played the kind of golf that was tough to beat.

He was at his best that week, and he had to be.

With the meat of the season about to begin, the question is how often they can be at their best against deeper and younger competitio­n.

Mickelson was poised to win the Desert Classic until he lost on a birdie at the last hole to Adam Long, who was No. 417 in the world ranking. He overcame a three- shot deficit against Paul Casey by closing with a 65 at Pebble Beach. In between was a missed cut at the Phoenix Open, where he changed driver in search of a few extra yards. Mickelson is always chasing distance.

His optimism comes from picking up 6 mph of swing speed for his driver, which he says rarely happens to anybody, let alone someone in his late 40s.

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