While it was very rare that they would actually face off in the same group in tournaments, there was arguably no-one who proved to be a more consistent rival while Tiger Woods was at the peak of his powers than Phil Mickelson.
There are a number of players who probably had the game to win a lot more majors, but ended up paying the price for being around in the same era as Tiger Woods.
While Woods unquestionably brought so much more to the game than he took from it, his brilliance surely denied players such as Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia the periods of dominance they undoubtedly had the quality to enjoy.
Mickelson, in particular, seemed to lose out on the course. It is remarkable that Lefty never once reached world number one, while Woods had won eight majors before his countryman had won his first.
What Tiger Woods really thought of Phil Mickelson’s game
There were always rumours that the pair did not get along. There was one day across their entire Ryder Cup careers which saw Woods and Mickelson paired together.
And speaking on Fried Egg Golf, Woods’ long-time caddie Steve Williams confirmed that Mickelson was the player the 15-time major champion wanted to beat more than any other – though he did insist that Woods had so much respect for his foe’s quality.
“There’s no question who that person is, Lefty, Mr Phil Mickelson. There’s no player that he would get up for more. And look, whilst they weren’t the greatest of mates, he had unbelievable admiration for Phil’s game,” he said.
“And he knew competing with Phil at the same time, when Phil got over the line and won his first major championship, it wasn’t going to be the last one, and if he could be the guy there in contention every time when Phil’s trying to win one of them and possibly prevent him from getting his first and keep that one win away as long as he could – absolutely every time when he was playing with Phil, there was going to be the utmost concentration.”
Why Mickelson and Woods’ partnership at the 2004 Ryder Cup did not work
It is almost surprising that it took until 2004 for a US Ryder Cup captain to pair Woods and Mickelson together in the event. Unfortunately, it would become the mistake Hal Sutton’s tenure will probably be best remembered for.
Woods and Mickelson lost both of their matches on Friday at Oaklands Hill. Needless to say, they would never play together again in the Ryder Cup.
And in 2016, Mickelson explained the reason why he believes that the partnership did not work.
“Tiger found out the year before when we played at the Presidents Cup in 2003 that the golf ball I was playing was not going to work for him,” he said. “He plays a very high-spin ball and I play a very low-spin ball, and we had to come up in two days with a solution.
“So I grabbed a couple dozen of his balls, I went off to the side, and tried to learn his golf ball in a four or five-hour session on one of the other holes, trying to find out how far the ball goes. It forced me to stop my preparation for the tournament, to stop chipping and putting and sharpening my game in an effort to crash-course learn a whole different golf ball that we were going to be playing.
“And in the history of my career, I have never ball-tested two days prior to a major. I’ve never done it. Had we known a month in advance, we might have been able to make it work. I think we probably would have made it work. But we didn’t know until two days prior.”
Ultimately, golf fans never quite got the number of duels they would have hoped for while they were at their peak. The 2002 US Open is the only time where one finished as runner-up to the other across the 21 majors they won combined.
But Mickelson certainly benefitted from being around at the same time as Woods. And judging by Williams’ comments, the same could definitely be said for the other way around.
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