When Phil Mickelson donned the green jacket as Masters champion at Augusta National on Sunday evening it was difficult not to think that we were looking at the next world No 1.
In fact the only thing that could have made the scene even more symbolic would have been if Tiger Woods had been the man helping Mickelson into the famed garment instead of Ángel Cabrera, the 2009 champion.
It has been a long time coming, but finally the sport has a man who can stand toe-to-toe with arguably the greatest player of all time (although Jack Nicklaus’s fans would have something to say about that) and proceed to land the knockout blow.
At 39, Mickelson is in the prime of his golfing life. He has four major championships and while that pales in comparison with the 14 of Woods, he will be fancied to win another whenever he tees it up — although as a relatively poor player in wind, he will hope for benign conditions for the Open Championship at St Andrews in July. So, has Mickelson got inside Tiger’s head? Or, more pertinently, has Mickelson banished Woods from his? The answer is yes, on both counts. Not only that, the new Masters champion has taken the moral high ground. To the public, one is a tarnished hero caught up in a sex scandal; the other a great family man coping with the trauma of breast cancer suffered by his wife, Amy.
Which is why the emotional scenes around the 18th green at Augusta National on Sunday, when Mickelson hugged his wife for what seemed an interminable time, will remain for ever in the minds of those who witnessed it. If Woods had won on his return to the game after five months in exile, it would have been regarded as an incredible achievement — as it was, joint fourth was no mean feat — but would not have met such unalloyed joy.
Yet only the foolish would write off Woods. His play over four days at Augusta was extraordinary, a mixture of the bad, the brilliant and the indifferent. In the final round he gave us the full panoply of eagles, birdies, bogeys and pars. His consistency, not surprisingly, has deserted him for now. There was a time when it was the other way around. Everyone used to say: “Mickelson, great player but he’s no Tiger Woods. Far too flaky.”
Woods revelled in the knowledge that when he turned up the heat, Mickelson would go into meltdown, forgetting the percentages and taking outrageous risks. It is one of the reasons that Woods had won eight majors before Mickelson had registered his first, the Masters in 2004.
The shift in power, though, is stark. In the past three tournaments in which both have played Mickelson has quite simply blown Woods away. It began at the PGA Tour’s end-of-season Tour Championship last year in Atlanta, moved on to China and ended up here. In the final round of the Tour Championship Woods started the day leading Mickelson by two and finished up losing by three. His adversary went out in 31 in a round of 65 and did not give him a sniff.
Then, at the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, Mickelson repeated the feat. He had led by a stroke going into the final round and after seven holes had increased his lead to six. He never looked back. It was not long after that Woods’s life started to unravel. It would go some way to explaining his indifferent form and dreadful rapport with the thousands who turned up to watch. Mickelson, by comparison, did everything right. He would acknowledge the cheers, smack hands walking from greens to tees and stand for ages signing autographs.
There was an intriguing moment when Woods turned up on the practice ground here on Saturday. While most players were applauded, he was greeted by silence. Was it mute contempt or just people gawping, trying to understand the man in front of their eyes? It was strange behaviour because on the course the galleries took to him warmly, cheering every good shot he played.
It is unlikely, however, that he will get such an easy ride at tournaments away from genteel Augusta National. Mickelson has always been the “People’s Champion” in the United States and there is every chance that his standing will now have grown even higher. Woods has a long way to go before he can capture the hearts and minds of the public once more. On a golfing front, that is possible. On a personal level, the damage has been done.
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/golf/article7095708.ece
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