Phil Mickelson was a man on a specific mission at The Masters in 2001, as was the rest of the field aside from Tiger Woods.
Remarkably, Woods entered The Masters at Augusta National that year as the winner of the last three major championships.
Mickelson was charged with attempting to stop his dominance at the highest level, and was arguably in the best position to do so.
He had finished in the top 10 at The Masters four times in eight appearances, although he was still searching for a maiden major win at the time.
Phil Mickelson claimed Tiger Woods would break hickory golf clubs
Before the tournament started, however, Mickelson was asked to compare current star Woods with golfing legend Bobby Jones.
He said of seven-time major winner Jones before The Masters in 2001: “I certainly have read a bunch of things and articles on him, as well as the books he has written, and I enjoy all that he has done and meant for the game.
“I think that as an individual, he is very impressive, the fact that he did not play golf year-round. He studied at Georgia Tech and Emory and ultimately would not touch a club for six or seven months and play every tournament, win every tournament he played in.
“I think it’s very difficult to compare from that far of a generation removed. With hickory shafts, you could not have… if somebody as strong as Tiger tried to play hickory shafts, he would break them.
“Not only that, he would hook everything… or not hit it straight. The shafts were just not capable to hold that type of clubhead speed. So it’s difficult to really compare the two, because their swing…
“Bobby Jones’ golf swing, which was long, loose and fingers let go at top of the swings, were accustomed to his equipment; and Tiger’s golf swing, I don’t want to say it was accustomed to his equipment, but it complements him, just as [Ben] Hogan had very stiff equipment that you could not get back when Bobby Jones played. It’s very difficult to compare the two, when they were forced to go different directions with their games.”
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Comparing Bobby Jones’ hickory club distance and speed with Tiger Woods
Of course, it can never be known how a prime Woods would fare with hickory clubs, but Mickelson’s assumption about breaking them does seem accurate.
In 2018, the 15-time major champion posted a stunning swing speed of 129mph at the Valspar Championship, the fastest recorded swing speed on the PGA Tour at that stage of the season.
More recently in TGL, Woods recorded a max driver swing speed of 124.4mph, and an average of 121.5mph.
In comparison, as explained by Play Hickory, Bobby Jones had the “perfect blend of rhythm and balance that enabled him to be the greatest hickory golfer of all time.
“That swing enabled him to create a driver swing speed of about 113mph and to hit average drives of about 260 yards and up.”
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Incidentally, back when Woods won nine PGA Tour titles in 2000, he ranked second for driving distance with an average figure of 298 yards.
His fellow American and big-hitter John Daly took the number one spot, with an average distance off the tee of 301.4 yards.
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