Five of the biggest disappointments and Five positives from “The Match”
The Match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson was one of the most hyped up golf events other than a major in quite some time. It definitely presented a unique view of two of the games legendary players, but their actual play on the course and little trash talk was somewhat disappointing.
If you were one of the golf fans who found the Tiger vs. Phil intriguing enough to purchase their match on pay per view, you expected to see Phil and Tiger at the top of their games firing in pin seekers and dropping in birdies on every hole. Unfortunately that turned out to be far from the case. Both Tiger and Phil struggled to make important putts all day long leaving many viewers disappointed.
The match did go a surprising 22 holes, mainly because neither one of them could capitalize on any opportunity to close the other one out. It could have been the crazy $9 million dollar prize making these guys nervous, yet they have both played under more pressure before. It is more likely these guys just had somewhat of an off day on the back nine of both of their illustrious careers.
The highlight of the match came on the 17th hole when Tiger chipped in and fist pumped in classic fashion to go in to the 18th hole all square. Ultimately Phil got the better of Tiger on a makeshift 97 yard par three. He made a seven foot putt to end the match on the 22nd hole after pretty much outplaying Tiger the entire round. He took home the giant $9 million prize and also racked up $400,000 of Tiger’s money to go to his charity in side bets.
The biggest disappointment from watching this had to be the lack of back and forth between Phil and Tiger. They hyped the match with one of the major selling points being Tiger and Phil would be mic’d up for the entire round. There was little trash talk aside from when side bets were presented. After all golf is a gentleman’s sport, so trash talk was likely to be limited regardless.
Maybe if this format pitted golfers against each other that really disliked one another at the top of their primes it would yield a more exciting out come. It was still a great memorable match for golf because it generated money for a worthy cause. Here are some of the other biggest disappointments and positives from “The Match”.