Last week, the first World Golf Championship event of 2021 was being played at The Concession Club amid the slash pines and ponds near Florida’s west coast, bringing together the best collection of golf talent in this still-young year.
At the same time, Tiger Woods was beginning the slow, agonizing recovery from potentially life-altering injuries to his right leg and foot, the result of a harrowing single-car accident on a quiet Southern California morning, the images and emotions still fresh across the land.
Meanwhile, in Tucson, Arizona, Phil Mickelson was chasing his third victory in his third career start on the PGA Tour Champions. Mickelson wasn’t eligible for the WGC event (he has one top-20 PGA Tour finish in the past calendar year) so he headed to the desert where he won the Northern Telecom Open as a 20-year-old amateur, figuratively attempting to turn back the hands of time.
That’s where the PGA Tour finds itself now, sending up prayers and red-shirt salutes to Woods as the quiet work of rebuilding his broken body begins, while Mickelson, Tiger’s co-star for two decades, plays senior golf and reportedly mulls moving into a television booth.
There was never an actual line drawn to delineate the end of the Tiger-Phil era because golf allows its greats to keep going with the magic of a 2019 Masters proof of the game’s Disney-like and forever-young nature.
Last week, though, hit like a fist reminding us that things will never be the same.
It was inevitable and, to a large extent, it had already happened. But the events of last Tuesday, both terrifying and heartbreaking, pushed us to a different place. A place of hope and prayer and realization that we should be grateful that Woods survived, his children still have their father and the game still has him even if he never hits another competitive shot.
While we waited and wondered, the images of Woods came like a mental slideshow.
The red shirts and fist pumps. The way he could rotate his upper body on a full swing, launching himself into shots. The eyes peering out from under the brim of his cap, his ferocity in focus.
All of the shots, the big ones and the small ones, that when put together were golf’s version of a symphony, full of booming crescendos.
And the belief that sustained us for all of those Sundays, a belief that somehow Woods would find a way.
There’s a reliance on that belief now as Woods recovers from a wreck he reportedly can’t recall. But before golf enters the equation, there are likely more surgeries to be done in an attempt to make well what was practically destroyed.
He will need to learn to walk again. Yes, this is a man who won the U.S. Open with a cracked bone in his left leg, but he’s 45 now, still recovering from a fifth back operation, and with a body that’s older than its years.
The hopeful can imagine a day when Woods tees it up again – just because he can. That would be an achievement that might outshine the 15 majors and everything else he’s done but it’s too soon. The realist wonders if seeing him playing with son, Charlie, at the PNC Championship in December was a sweet, fateful farewell no one saw coming.
Mickelson is as unique in his own way as Woods is in his. They couldn’t be more different and that has been part of their shared story.
Woods and Mickelson had already grown into their roles of elder statesmen. Woods has become best buds with some of the young guys, particularly Justin Thomas. They gravitate to him, almost worshipful at first, and he’s embraced their friendship, evidence of Woods’ evolution during the past decade or so.
Mickelson is as unique in his own way as Woods is in his. They couldn’t be more different and that has been part of their shared story. Phil is chatty. Tiger isn’t. Phil is brash. Tiger isn’t. Phil wears sunglasses to draw attention. Tiger wears them to hide.
It’s possible Mickelson may choose television ahead of golf and he’s made for it. He’s a walking library of stories, he’s not afraid to speak his mind and he can poke fun at himself. He would be television gold but, hopefully, he’ll keep chasing the game a while longer.
Between them, Woods and Mickelson have won 126 PGA Tour events and 20 major championships. Granted, those totals tilt heavily in Woods’ favor but they defined more than an era.
They have helped define where the game has gone and where it’s going. Mickelson’s brilliant embrace of social media spreads the gospel according to Phil and it connects. He’s a showman with the gift of looking people in the eye, a gesture more players should emulate.
The PGA Tour and professional golf are in good spots. Collectively, the likes of Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood, Thomas and others have moved into the space Woods and Mickelson once occupied.
Collin Morikawa’s victory Sunday in the WGC-Workday Championship at the Concession – where he beat Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler who, like Morikawa are in their second full seasons on the Tour – brought the new age into sharp relief as he picked up his third win in eight months.
Aside from McIlroy and perhaps Jordan Spieth, none may have the magnetic appeal of Woods and Mickelson but they are brilliant in their own ways. The game is growing, an unexpected result of the pandemic, and the advent of tour-endorsed betting will only add to the interest.
A week ago, we wondered when we’d see Tiger playing again. Now we’re wondering if we’ll ever see him play again.
Mickelson spent last week playing what some would consider age-appropriate golf. He’s reached that point and it’s good to see stubborn pride isn’t keeping him from playing against guys he played against 25 years ago.
In Florida, a World Golf Championship was played without them.
And the world kept turning.
Top photo: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson during the 2005 Ford Championship
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