Phil Mickelson grew up in San Diego.
He’s won three times at Torrey Pines.
Tiger Woods grew up in Orange County.
He’s won eight times at Torrey Pines.
Mickelson is 46-years-old and battles psoriatic arthritis.
Woods is 41 and battles back problems, among other physical ailments.
The two have not crossed paths in a PGA Tour event in a long time. Word had it that Mickelson pulled enough strings to have himself paired with Woods at the Safeway last October. Never happened. Woods didn’t show up.
This week the two powers of the past converge one more time at Torrey Pines for the Farmers Insurance Open.
Mickelson showed up in Palm Springs last week, fresh off two sports hernia operations with high hopes and maybe not-so-high expectations. But after all, the CareerBuilder is staged on some birdie-friendly courses. By the end on Sunday, Mickelson had put together rounds of 68-66-73-70 and was 11-under par, good enough for a tie for 21st. You had to shoot five-under for 54 hole to make the cut. Not bad for a guy who didn’t know he would play until last Tuesday night.
This will be the first real live PGA Tour event for Woods nearly 18 months. Sure, he played in his own event, the Hero World Challenge, a no-cut event with less than 18 players. He finished 15th in a field of 17 and finished 14 shots behind winner Hideki Matsuyama.
Still, Woods did finish 72 holes shooting 72-65-70-76. Just finishing was good. The old back held up fine.
Now Woods is stepping out of the wading pool into the deep end. Torrey Pines is a big-boy course and Tiger used to be the biggest of them all.
Mickelson is stepping out of the 25-meter pool, into the deep end.
The two who used to be the biggest and baddest are back again, searching for their games, hoping to grasp a little bit of what used to be.
Mickelson is the king of optimism, always, it’s always almost there, right around the corner, a good shot here and another couple of birdie putts are all he needs. Right?
After Sunday in Palm Springs, Mickelson liked what he saw:
“It was farther along because I didn’t have to make any major changes to my swing plane and my iron game. I felt my game was much farther along than I thought it would be.”
Mickelson has a new driver in the bag, one of those Callaway Epic big-sticks. Didn’t work all that well for him last week but he said he’ll make a few tweaks to his stance, ball position, and all that good stuff. You know Lefty, the answer is right around the corner.
As for Woods, he’s in the midst of major equipment indecision. He’s gone to the Bridgestone ball but that’s no biggie. Everyone’s known for years, the dirty little secret that it was Bridgestone that made golf balls for Nike, the ones Woods used. He has reunited with an old friend named Scotty Cameron. If anything looked encouraging in the Bahamas it was Woods’ putting, for the most part.
Woods also hit a lot of nice middle iron shots. His old Nike irons are still in the bag. Anyone’s guess what will eventually end up there?
The driver and fairway woods were a different story. TaylorMade was the brand of choice at Albany. Let’s see what he’s got in the old Monster Energy bag this week.
Yes, the boys are back in town, together for the first time in a long time — No. 22 Mickelson and No. 663 Woods.
Phil shot 69-76 last year and missed the cut. Woods last played there in 2015, came down with the yips couldn’t “fire his glutes” and promptly withdrew.
Would the PGA Tour dare to pair these guys for Thursday and Friday?
We can only hope.
