At least Mickelson was close; Tiger’s major demons the real story at Merion

At least Mickelson was close; Tiger’s major demons the real story at Merion

Joe Bianca

Though his legacy will always be dwarfed in comparison, Phil Mickelson still has one thing Tiger Woods never did. Mickelson’s everyman personality, his go-for-broke game and most significantly, his fatal flaws have always made him the most popular guy on any golf course he walks. Woods, while always attracting a large following in awe of his greatness, ironically has never had the same connection with his sport’s devotees because of that greatness. Tiger was a prodigy, a dominant force at Stanford, the youngest ever Masters winner in 1997, a cold-blooded assassin on the course throughout the first decade of his career. He won everything in sight, often by historic margins, rewriting golf history with automaton-like ease.

On the other hand, there’s Mickelson, who has often been described as playing golf like viewers at home would, taking aggressive lines, shaking off a lot of bad shots to occasionally hit some great ones. He’s won four majors, including three Masters, but there’s only one tournament fans are aching to see him win. The U.S. Open has always been Phil’s White Whale, the temptress he’s come almost comically close to conquering but could never close out. Sunday at Merion was just the latest act in this tragedy, as Mickelson missed putt after putt to squander a 54-hole lead, finishing 2nd for a record sixth time at our national championship. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Mickelson comes up short again. It’s a compelling story that’s essential to his appeal. It’s also the main reason that no one’s talking today about how bad the once invincible Woods continues to be in majors.

There was a period not too long ago when Tiger was an odds-on favorite at every major. Time and time again, he’d take the lead and never relinquish it, running away from the field on Sunday. The question of him breaking Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors wasn’t one of if, but when. He won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 strokes to start a run of four straight major wins. The most recent of his 14 major tallies was his greatest feat, when he won an 18-hole playoff in the 2008 U.S. Open on one leg.

Unfortunately for Woods, that triumphant Monday at Torrey Pines has since become the delineation point for his career. Reconstructive knee surgery forced him out of 2008’s last two majors and he came up empty at 2009’s first three. Woods seemed poised to break his drought at the 2009 PGA Championship, but for the first time in his career surrendered a 54-hole lead at a major and lost by 3 strokes to Y.E. Yang. Several months later came the explosive and humiliating infidelity scandal, which did permanent damage to Woods’ public image and personal life.

It’s now been five full years since Tiger’s won a major — a stretch that would’ve been unimaginable before the tumultuous events of 2008-09 — and he’s getting further away from, not closer to winning one. Woods finished in the top 10 in five of his first six majors post-surgery. Since then, he’s only done it three times in 10 tries. The debate has changed from “When will Tiger break Jack’s record?” to “Will Tiger break Jack’s record?” to, at this point, “Will Tiger even win another major?” and rightfully so. Woods hasn’t been a serious threat at a Big Four event since he blew that 2009 PGA. He either starts off slowly and can’t rally, or plays well early but melts down on the weekend.

The most perplexing thing for Woods must be that, outside of majors, he’s once again the pound-for-pound best golfer in the world. After not winning a PGA Tour event in 2010 or 2011, he won three times on Tour last year and has won four times already this year. Only one other player (Matt Kuchar) has multiple tournament wins in 2013. Woods has a stronghold on the #1 world ranking. In the year’s two majors so far though, he’s been a mess.

Woods was playing well and moving up the leaderboard in the 2nd round at Augusta, when he got unlucky and had his pitch bounce off the flagstick and into the water on 15. He then took an illegal drop that originally went unnoticed, signed his scorecard incorrectly and eventually was penalized two strokes when a viewer called in to report his infraction. Woods never recovered and finished four shots off the lead. At Merion, Tiger was a respectable +3 on the feisty course through two rounds, then proceeded to shoot +10 over the weekend and finish 12 shots back.

The guy who towered above his competitors for a decade mentally even more than physically is shriveling on golf’s biggest stages. NBC’s Johnny Miller noted on Sunday that, for whatever reason, Tiger isn’t putting at majors the way he does elsewhere on Tour. The conclusion that his issues are between the ears is unavoidable at this point, and the longer he goes without a major, the more his confidence seems to wane. Equally alarming is the list of young major winners since 2008 who didn’t truly experience the 37-year-old Woods’ era of omnipresence. Rising stars like Webb Simpson (27), Rory McIlroy (24), Keegan Bradley (27) and Charl Schwartzel (28) can’t possibly be intimidated by Tiger the way all of his contemporaries once were.

Considering how little Woods resembles the machine he was for so long and how deeply flawed he now appears, perhaps the golf world will pull hard for him as a tragic figure like it does for Mickelson. But first Tiger, he of the 78 career Tour wins, will actually have to be involved on Sunday in a major. How daunting that sounds says everything about how far Woods has fallen.