Tour Insider

Tiger vs. Phil: Coming Soon? - 02/12/2007

By Brian Hewitt

First things first: The duel I’d most like to see in golf at the moment is Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson.
 
Tiger has won seven straight PGA TOUR events. Phil spread-eagled the field and the golf course Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
 

And here’s the cool part about IT. Woods vs. Mickelson could happen, head-to-head, as early as next week at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship near Tucson.
 
By virtue of his five-shot victory over the field down on the Monterey Peninsula Mickelson moved back up to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Ranking. That means Mickelson and No. 1 Woods can not meet any earlier than the semi-finals.
 
But they can meet. We in the media are not supposed to root for players. We’re supposed to just root for the story. I’m rooting for Tiger vs. Phil. That’s the best story right now.
 
The golf course, by the way, is NOT La Costa, where Woods won in 2003 and 2004. This year it’s near Tucson at the South Course at The Gallery at Dove Mountain, which can be stretched to 7,356 yards from the back tees.
 
Yes, yes there’s a pretty good little event coming up this week at Riviera. And it almost always offers terrific theater in an historic setting. But this year, at least, it will have to serve as the warm-up act for Tiger’s quest for No. 8 and Phil’s hoped-for challenge.
 
Mickelson is now officially warmed up for 2007. In his first three events of the year he alternately struggled with distance control on the short irons and then, last week at the FBR Open, with his putting.
 
His swing coach, Rick Smith, believed Mickelson was closer than it appeared to returning to top form. “I just hope,” Smith told me, “Phil doesn’t lose patience.”
 
Dave Pelz, Mickelson’s short-game advisor, got with Phil at Pebble last week and the results were immediate. Mickelson started getting his putts tracking on line and the results were 31 one-putts in 72 holes. On Sunday at Pebble alone, Mickelson birdied nine of, arguably, the most photogenic 18 golf holes in the world.
 
When Mickelson melted down on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open last June at Winged Foot, his problems stemmed from bad driving. At Pebble Beach in mid-weekend Mickelson said, “I’m honestly driving the ball the best I’ve ever driven it.”
 
Which makes it easier to forget how trying the format at the AT&T can sometimes be. Jim Furyk, ranked No. 2 in the world, was tied for the lead after 36 holes. Then the weather turned for the worse Saturday and his round lasted six hours and 40 minutes. “I don’t care if the sun is shining,” Furyk said after a tortuous 76. “You could shoot me.”