Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh were fierce rivals on the golf course, and back in 2005, that rivalry spilled over to the locker room.
Mickelson and Singh are two of the most successful PGA Tour players in the history of the game.
The American and Fijian have 79 PGA Tour titles and nine major championship wins between them.
Mickelson’s game has completely changed now, with a more methodical approach compared to his Gung-ho attitude that he had during his prime.
Meanwhile, Singh is working as hard as ever out on PGA Tour Champions.
The two came up against each other on numerous occasions during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Mickelson got the better of Singh more often than most. However, at The Masters in 2005, Singh pipped Mickelson by a single shot.
Neither of them won at Augusta National that year, but there were fireworks in the locker room after the man from Fiji felt aggrieved by something that the six-time major champion did.
Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh nearly came to blows at Augusta
Back in 2005, Singh took exception to what Mickelson did on Augusta’s fabled turf.
The New York Post ran an article 20 years ago, quoting ‘multiple eye witnesses’ as their sources.
After round two of The Masters in 2005, there was said to be an ‘explosive incident’ involving Mickelson and Singh.
A shouting match then ensued – one that nearly evolved into blows between the two players inside the Champions Locker Room at Augusta National.
The reason for the ‘so-called ‘disagreement? The length of Mickelson’s spikes, and the damage that they apparently caused to the soaked Augusta greens.
Singh was playing behind the Californian and suggested that the foot prints left by his long-term rival were accentuated because of the sheer size of the spikes he was wearing.
A rules official spoke to Mickelson on the 13th tee, after Singh had complained on the previous hole.
Incredibly, the 45-time PGA Tour winner was told that another official was going to come out and file down his spikes – something that never happened in the end.
What Phil Mickelson said after Vijay Singh’s accusations at Augusta
Mickelson was not a happy man at all after the incident at Augusta.
When speaking to the New York Post, the now 55-year-old explained how angry he was after the accusations aimed at him from Singh.
He said: “I was extremely distracted and would have appreciated if it would have been handled differently or after the round. After sitting in the locker room for awhile, I heard Vijay talking to other players about it and I confronted him. He expressed his concerns. I expressed my disappointment with the way it was handled. I believe everything is fine now.
“Given the wet and slippery conditions, more than a third of the field is using steel spikes. And, I make every effort to tap down whatever spike marks I leave.”
We will never know whether it was Mickelson who caused the excessive damage to the greens with his spikes. After all, more than a third of the field used metal spikes in 2005 due to the rain and the soft conditions that ensued at Augusta National.
Singh was clearly convinced it was the American who was to blame, but he would surely now admit that he handled the whole situation fairly poorly.
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