The Sideline

Tiger’s triumphant return to golf turned out to be a great story, for different reasons than most would have guessed. No, Tiger didn’t win the Masters, as many predicted he would. But what he did do was play solid golf, enough so to finish tied for fourth and keep himself in contention and more importantly, in the spotlight, the entire tournament.
But the winner, Phil Mickelson, was happy to let the pressure fall on Tiger, as he solidly sank putt after putt to increase his lead. And this time, no Phil choke.
Mickelson has been through a lot this past year, with his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer, and the weight of being the world’s best golfer not named Tiger and having to carry the PGA Tour in his absence.
The Masters itself was a fantastic tournament this year, considering that Fred Couples at age 50 had the lead heading into the second round, and some young guns and foreign players made some noise near the top of the leaderboard.
But in the end, if it wasn’t gonna be Tiger, it was gonna be Phil. And that should make golf fans happy. The rivalry that started heating up last year is back and could be poised to be better than ever. If Tiger’s play in the Masters is any indication of what to expect from him, he and Phil could battle it out for every major, or for that matter, every tournament they both enter for months and years to come.
Looking at golf right now, a few things are apparent. First and foremost, golf needs Tiger. He needs golf as well, but more as his opportunity to heal, to put everything else out of his mind, and to move on with his life as the greatest golfer of all time. But now, it also looks like Tiger needs Mickelson and vice versa as well. Without Tiger to compete against, Mickelson cannot savor victories as much, because anyone can ask, “well what if Tiger had been playing?” And Tiger needs Phil, because frankly he needs a sparring partner, a Larry Bird to his Magic Johnson. Hopefully the two of them can make golf relevant again, and make each other even better along the way.

Posted by Preston Sellers on Apr 16 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry