Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are set for an 8-figure one-on-one matchup. It’s coming to prime-time TV soon…and it may be just the beginning of something even bigger.
Tiger Woods versus Phil Mickelson. It’s the matchup that has caused the greatest divide among golf fans for the better part of 20 years. The story has played out in major events around the world, but most of the time, it hasn’t been direct, one-on-one competition.
That’s all about to change, as news broke Friday that the two all-time greats are set to square off. This time, it will be a made-for-TV event, with $10 million on the line.
To steal a line from Terrell Owens: get your popcorn ready.
The dream match was originally scheduled to take place this past Tuesday, July 3, per Alan Shipnuck of Golf.com. However, the negotiations between the two players, TV networks and sponsors didn’t get done in time.
Still, Mickelson is confident that the deal will be closed before long. “We’re working on a different date,” Mickelson said on Thursday. “I thought it was done for the 3rd but obviously it wasn’t.”
While I – along with basically every other golf fan for the last two decades – would have loved to see this circa 2003, with both in their primes, this is still a license for all involved to print money.
What was once a frosty rivalry has actually grown into a surprising friendship as both have grown older. Between that and a little bit of business savvy (and each player’s massive fortune), you’ve got a match made in golf heaven.
Could Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson become the next Arnie and Jack?
The build started, publicly at least, at this year’s PLAYERS Championship. Phil opened the “negotiation” after the two were paired together, leaning into what all of us were thinking: the two legends paired in a much higher-profile round one more time.
"“The excitement that’s been going on around here, it gets me thinking: Why don’t we just bypass all the ancillary stuff of a tournament and just go head-to-head and just have kind of a high-stakes, winner-take-all match,” Mickelson said. “Now, I don’t know if he wants a piece of me, but I just think it would be something that would be really fun for us to do, and I think there would be a lot of interest in it if we just went straight to the final round.”"
Whether that was a legitimate attempt by Phil to poke the proverbial bear (and literal Tiger) or just so much prizefighting hype, it drew the desired response from Woods.
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“I’m definitely not against that,” Woods quipped. “We’ll play for whatever makes him uncomfortable.”
Mickelson’s famed love of a good wager aside, that’s a bold statement. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Tiger is one of the few who could legitimately make that happen.
15 years ago, the two did mix it up in prime time, but it was never head to head. While they were fierce rivals then, it may be their more relaxed relationship that has brought them together once again.
Woods and Mickelson have been through everything in golf, if not together, at least adjacent. From their Southern California roots to becoming two of the most decorated pros of all time, theirs is a bond not unlike two other legends: Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
No, it’s not a perfect parallel, but it’s pretty close. Mickelson was never the dominant figure that Palmer was, but when the younger Woods exploded on the scene, neither one shied away from the competition.
It brought out the best in them, and as they’ve aged, that mutual respect may actually be growing into a legitimate friendship. Mickelson has openly said that the two probably should have always gotten along this well, but they’ve “turned the corner”. The fact that they both stand to make a boatload of cash is almost a side benefit of getting to talk smack and play a little golf.
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It’s not hard now to see the two carrying on together years into the future. One day, on a warm morning in the first week of April the two will share a tee box at Augusta National. And, with any luck, they’ll be needling each other for decades to come.
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