Gambling is the life-blood of Las Vegas.
We’ve finally gotten there, the Big Gamble is today, this afternoon out there at Shadow Creek.
They’ve tried to hype this up, give it their best, they’ve trash-talked their way into this head-to-head bru-ha-ha.
Yes, this is Tiger vs. Phil day. Woods vs. Mickelson, Thanksgiving leftovers.
We’ve polled the golfer on the street this week and the enthusiasm was, well, reserved at best. No one’s talking much about this $9 million, winner-take-all match between the two giants of the game.
The sad part of this is the setting — no fans on site. Does that mean no fools out there screaming “Ti-Gahhhhhhhhh!” at the top of their lung capacity? No one screaming “Get In The Hole!” when someone hits a drive?
Even bigger question is: Will The Golf Channel’s Tiger Tracker be denied admittance to the match? In case you’ve never seen it, The Tiger Tracker is a guy who live blogs all of Tiger’s rounds, no matter where he’s playing. He goes hole-by-hole, shot-by-shot and basically lives and dies by how Woods performs. No one else rates their own blogger on The Golf Channel site.
So this is a gamble of sorts, mostly for Woods. He has absolutely nothing to gain from this as we all know he has basically owned Mickelson over the years.
The resumes aren’t even close. For Woods — 14 majors, 80 PGA Tour wins. Mickelson — five majors, 43 PGA Tour wins.
Which brings us back to Vegas this afternoon.
Mickelson has tried to coerce all of us into watching this funny business.
Said Mickelson this week to Tiger:
“Every time I see you, I want to be able t rub it in. I don’t want it to be rubbed in. I want to sit in the Champions locker room in Augusta and talk smack. I want that.”
Seriously?
Tiger doesn’t need to talk smack to Mickelson. This is all he’d need to say:
“Hey Phil — got three words for you — United States Open.”
And just like that, Eldrick could put Mickelson in his place — permanently. That’s one major Mickelson will never win and at this advanced stage of his career, this is one place where it’s probably safe to use the word “never.”
And of course Phil tried to bait everyone into watching this thing on Pay Per View.
Phil threw “FOMO” at us — Fear Of Missing Out. Really?
We realize that the northeast United States is homebound and this might provide some entertainment but down here in Florida, the day after Thanksgiving is historically one of the busiest days of the golf season as far as rounds played. Get the guests out of the house and on the golf course. Great for the economy.
That afternoon start might help. With the time change it starts getting dark at 5:30 in Florida, much earlier up north.
So maybe, just maybe, the temptation is great to watch this thing.
And this breaking news just in:
DogLegNews feels the overwhelming journalistic responsibility to watch The Big Match and give you the real world take on how things went down.
Yes, we’re going to watch.
Check with us for analysis of The Aftermath.
As for that “FOMO” that Mickelson threw out, don’t sweat it.
This isn’t that big of a deal.
