Tiger Woods gets revenge in “The Match: Champions for Charity”

After losing to Phil Mickelson two years ago, Tiger Woods got his revenge on Sunday at “The Match”

In 2018, Phil Mickelson beat Tiger Woods on the 22nd hole to claim the title, and the $9 million prize money, at “The Match”. On Sunday, Woods partnered with former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning in his rematch against Mickelson, who had Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady as his partner.

Woods was clearly motivated from the very start. He came out firing on nearly all cylinders as he and Manning took an early 2-up lead.

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There was lots of good-natured trash talk early on, but Woods was not an early participant. He was clearly focused, hitting the first five fairways and the first five greens in regulation despite playing in rain.

Woods showed from the very beginning that he had revenge on his mind. He was focused and he was clearly the best player on the course. Naturally, he was better than the amateurs, but Tiger was way better than Mickelson as well.

Manning also contributed to the cause early. He made a birdie on the fourth hole, then made a par/net birdie on the sixth hole as he and Woods took a commanding 3-up lead through just six holes.

After Brady holed out from the fairway for a birdie on the par-5 seventh hole, Woods nearly upstaged him, lipping out his long eagle putt that would have won the hole. It was just another example of how dialed in Woods was on this day.

He was determined to get his revenge from his 2018 loss to Mickelson

On the ninth hole, Woods hit a fabulous chip shot for a tap-in par, as he and Manning held the 3-up lead through nine holes.

The back nine was a modified alternate shot format, which Woods did not seem to enjoy as much. Part of that was that Manning put Tiger in tough situations on a couple of holes. But Woods also had a couple of non-Tiger-like misses along the way.

However, when his team needed him the most, he stepped up. On the 18th hole, the Brady-Mickelson partnership needed to win the hole to continue the match. After Mickelson hit his chip shot tight, Tiger rolled his long putt within inches to clinch the match, 1-up.

Any questions about Woods’ health were seemingly put to rest on this day. Tiger seemed to hit every fairway and nearly every green, something that should scare the competition as the PGA Tour schedule resumes in June.

Tiger was happy that he and Manning could win. But above all else, Woods was very happy to get his revenge against Mickelson.