The Match: Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson
Two titans of the PGA Tour went head-to-head in a match play event on Friday, Nov. 23, that golf fans everywhere were looking forward to for a long time.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have been two of the most popular golfers on the PGA Tour, for the past two decades. Not only that, but they have been intense rivals for the entirety of their careers. Woods has won 80 times on Tour, while Mickelson has won 43 times. This made-for-TV event was held at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas and was sponsored by Capitol One.
The winner of the event would win $9 million from Capitol One, while both players made side bets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout the match. The winners of these side bets donated what they won to any charity of their choice.
The match began with Phil losing his first bet to Woods for $200,000 by failing to birdie the first hole. However, this was the easiest win Tiger had all day. Throughout the day, neither player was ever more than one-up on the other. For a while, it looked like Mickelson would close Woods out of the match, but Tiger won the 17th hole, which brought the match back to all square.
After the two tied three playoff holes, Phil won the fourth playoff hole to win the entire match. Few players in the world can go head-to-head with Tiger Woods and come out the victor, but Phil Mickelson pulled it off this time. Neither player seemed to be playing the best we have ever seen them play, but it was exciting to see nonetheless.
The popularity of this event may suggest that there may be more pay-per-view golf events in the future. After all is said and done, Phil Mickelson can now claim bragging rights that he beat Tiger Woods in a head-to-head match for all to see.