On Sunday, Phil Mickelson won his 40th career PGA Tour event with his win at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro AM in Pebble Beach, California. It was an impressive victory where he rallied back with a final round 64 for the low round of the day.
Perhaps Phil’s victory wasn’t even the biggest storyline of the tournament. It was Bill Murray’s outfit! (Just kidding). The biggest storyline of the Pro AM was the resurgence of Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods’ rivalry.
Phil is still working back from his personal and family health nightmares. We all know about Tiger’s turbulent two year stretch. Phil has admittedly had a tough time motivating himself of late without his arch nemesis playing at a high level. Tiger is trying to return to his pre-incident mental state. Phil’s wedges aren’t what they once were. Tiger’s putter has been slow getting back into the swing of things (pun intended).
After three rounds at Pebble Beach, it was all back. Tiger and Phil sat 3rd and 4th, respectively, and had their sights set on a Sunday pairing. Tiger started the round two shots ahead of Phil, but that was about the only time Tiger had the edge. By the end of the day, Phil had shot a 64 and Tiger had shot an abysmal 75. Started ahead of Phil by 2 and finishing 9 back, Tiger had an extremely uncharacteristic Sunday.
Although Tiger’s Sunday red may not have glowed as bright as it once had this past weekend, Phil and Tiger’s rivalry is back. This is exactly what the PGA Tour was looking for. In Phil and Tiger’s absences, nobody seemed to want to become the face of the Tour. Martin Kaymer, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald were all ranked number one at some point, but they rarely showed that in recent majors. Rory McIlroy seemed ready to take over, but American golf fans ultimately want an American at the top, whether they admit it or not. Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson are close, but nowhere near Phil and Tiger.
With Phil and Tiger’s rivalry back on, so is the PGA Tour. Golf is back in America. Everyone rejoice! If you ask me, I would say that one of them will win a major this year. Even though the final scorecards didn’t show it, the final pairing meant much more to the game of golf than the result. Ladies and Gentlemen, they are back, and the future of golf looks very bright.
Is golf back? Will Tiger or Phil win a major this year? Tell me what you think.
--Written By Kevin Rossi
@kevin_rossi
No comments:
Post a Comment