TIGER & PHIL

Recounting a 25-year duel on the links.

“While there was respect, at times there was also pettiness and standoffishness,” writes ESPN.com senior golf writer Harig, describing the rivalry between these two great golfers in this insightful tale of the tape. He sets the stage with the 2004 Ryder Cup, when Hal Sutton, U.S. captain, surprisingly paired Woods and Mickelson together in two matches. They had never played together before. Their uneasy relationship was being put to the test, and they failed miserably, losing both. Harig chronicles in detail each player’s early rise to stardom. He notes that they were both brash and good at golf ever since they were young, with Mickelson, five years older, having an edge over Woods in terms of experience. The author reveals them as two very different kinds of players. Woods was a taciturn, tactical technician, Mickelson the imaginative, gambling prankster. Woods always took his game superseriously, Mickelson less so. Both accomplished impressive feats early in their careers, but Woods won his first appearance at the Masters as Mickelson missed the cut. “By that weekend in 1997, Phil knew what he was up against,” writes Harig. “As great as he was, Tiger was proving to be every bit the star and more.” In golf, head-to-head matchups are infrequent, so the author mostly covers this rivalry from afar. There was the much-hyped, made-for-TV “The Match” in 2018, which Mickelson won. Harig admits there was friction in their rivalry, but it has been “a glorious ride through more than two decades of highs and lows.” In the end, despite Mickelson’s outstanding career, the author declares Woods the winner of this rivalry, an opinion that will surprise few observers of the game. Though a touch overlong and sometimes dry, the narrative is enlivened with interesting quotes from players and caddies, much golf lore, and up-close descriptions of tournaments and the players’ games in action.

Insider portraits tailor-made for golf enthusiasts.