Tiger And Phil, Woods Vs. Mickelson — The Sequel To Vegas Is On For May

Tiger and Phil, Woods vs. Mickelson, The Sequel with a twist — it’s on!

Phil dropped hints on Twitter in March that a match involving himself and Tiger Woods was in the works.  This time it was Mickelson with the accurate “insider information.”

So now we have a sequel to that less-than-fantastic Thanksgiving match that was played November 23, 2018 in Las Vegas.  Mickelson walked away with the $9,000,000 winner-take-all prize after tedious play by both Woods and Mickelson that Charles Barkley described as “really crappy golf.”

This sequel match has a special twist/additive — Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.  And this time it will serve as a fundraiser to benefit COVID-19 relief.

Turner Sports finally let the cat out of the proverbial bag on Wednesday.  They’re calling this one:  “The Match: Champions For Charity.”

There’s no set date yet, for good reason.  They’re still working on venue and logistics.  Then there’s the “approval by the PGA Tour” situation.  This is not a sanctioned event by the PGA Tour and with Tiger and Phil both being PGA Tour members,  Ye Olde Sheriff Of Nottingham (aka tour commish Jay Monahan), will have to give it his blessing and sign off that it’s cool for Phil and Tiger to show up and play in this made-for-television match.

Okay, let’s tackle the venue.  We’ve got three possibilities.

First is The Medalist Golf Club.  It’s where Tiger and a lot of other tour players hang out.  It’s in Martin County, just across the border from Palm Beach County, which was cruel enough to shut down courses in the county.  The Medalist was the brainchild of Greg Norman.  Good layout, easy to get around, good setting for something like this.

Then there’s the Floridian Golf Club — another high-end, private venue that was founded by Wayne Huizenga and later sold to Houston Astros owner Jim Crane.  It’s been a popular place for tour players.  This is another perfect venue for this high-profile match.

There’s also a third candidate if they need to go that far down the list — The McArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound, same neighborhood as The Medalist.  McArthur Dairy Farms is the majority owner and it was designed by Jupiter Island resident Nick Price in collaboration with Tom Fazio.  Great layout, good spot for the match.

Odds are good that one of those three will emerge as the site.

Hopefully, it will be a better show than the Slackers At Shadow Creek event where neither Woods nor Mickelson played very well.  Most memorable was the huffing and puffing by Mickelson as he walked the Vegas course, sounding like he was ready to pass out at any moment.  There was supposed to be some “trash talking” between Phil and Tiger but that never surfaced, it was evident the two have a lot of respect for each other.

But bringing amateur golfers Brady and Manning into the mix might change that.  No doubt Woods and Mickelson will have no problem needling those guys.  Original banter was that Tiger would  team with Manning while Brady and Mickelson would make a pair then there was Woods-Brady, Phil-Tom.  Tthat’s been up for discussion but Mickelson has put other there that he’ll be with Brady, sending Manning to his pal, Tiger.

One of the things they’re working on will be safety protocols.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has given his blessing to all things golf-related and he has no problem whatsoever with this match taking place in the Sunshine State.  Governor Ron has deemed any nationally televised sports as “essential services.”  Thank-you Governor Ron!

This one won’t be a pay-per-view, which turned out to be a giant fiasco in 2018.  Those who payed ended up with their money refunded and Turner ended up putting it out there for free public consumption.  That match ended up in a tie and there was the anti-climatic 93-yard wedge-off battle for the $9,000,000.

No telling how sharp or rusty Woods and Mickelson might be this go-round with the long tour layoff brought on by the pandemic.

No telling how Brady or Manning will play.

The best news for all of us is that it will give us something to watch.

As for Tiger, he’s looking forward to it and added this:

“Yes, we’re going to have a great time.  But at the end of the day, you have to understand why we’re coming together. We’re coming together to help other people. This is different than what Phil and I did two years ago, playing our match in Vegas. That was he and I just having a great time, trying to showcase golf in a different way. We’re coming together to showcase golf in a different way, but it’s about charity. That’s the reason why we’re all doing this.”