Medinah, Ill. – To get a sense of the atmosphere at the PGA Championship, the season’s final major, it may be necessary to go back to the final round of this year’s first big gathering, the Masters. On that April Sunday at Augusta National, Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples did everything but hold hands and skip along the lush greens and azaleas before Mickelson won.
That is not what is expected Thursday morning when Mickelson goes off the 10th tee of Medinah Country Club with Tiger Woods. Asked Tuesday what he thought the difference would be between the last 18 holes in Georgia and the opening 36 in Chicago, paired with Woods, Mickelson cracked, “The amount of conversation.”
If that’s the case, said Woods, he shouldn’t take it personally.
“We’re fine, (but) it’s a major championship and I don’t really talk a whole lot in major championships,” Woods said. “I stay in my own little world and try to handle my own business. I don’t talk to (caddie) Stevie (Williams) much. That’s just the way it is in majors for me.
“I’ve played with some of my best friends. I’ve played with (Mark O’Meara) in a major before and haven’t said a word to him all day except, ‘Here’s your card.’ I’m trying to win this golf tournament.”
Few people around these parts don’t expect Woods to do that very thing. The winner of his past two starts, the season’s third major, the British Open, followed by the Buick Open, Woods has approached a level that brings to mind his pre-swing change “Tiger Slam” heyday of 2000-01, when he held all four major titles at once. He was so good, it almost seemed as if he were making a mockery of the game.
“I saw him hit a few shots at the Buick and he had that kind of swagger, kind of twirling the club after he hits it, that kind of strut he has when he’s really playing well,” said U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, the third member of the PGA’s traditional featured pairing. “He has that ‘No one is beating me’ look in his eyes.
“He hasn’t had that for a while. From our perspective, it’s almost like: ‘What are you doing? Do you know how good you were in ’99 to 2002? Why were you (changing)? Was it that boring for you? Why is that not good enough?”‘
The temptation is to not only cede Woods the Wanamaker Trophy that goes to the tournament winner, but his eighth PGA player of the year award in the past 10 years as well. However, Mickelson – and even Ogilvy – still have a great deal to say about the matter.
Mickelson certainly hasn’t had the level of success that Woods has enjoyed of late. The left-hander finished in a tie for 22nd at the British, then missed the cut last week at The International. Some have speculated that his indifferent results are the residual effects of his harrowing loss to Ogilvy at Winged Foot, when he double-bogeyed the 72nd hole when a par would have won him the tournament.
“It’s a fair assessment,” Mickelson said of the Open-hangover theory. “I haven’t played to the level that I expected to, but then again, it’s only been two or three tournaments.
“I’ve been gearing up for this event. I would have liked to have played better heading in. I hit it great at The International and putted poorly. I would have liked to get a little momentum, but you have to take whatever hand is dealt.”
With wins in the U.S. Open and the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play already on his résumé, Ogilvy could make his own argument for player of the year with a win here, but the Australian seems to be just as content to stand to the side and watch the circus that’s sure to follow Woods and Mickelson on Thursday.
“Geoff Ogilvy is the one I feel sorry for,” Chris DiMarco said. “You’re going to have people who just love Tiger and people that just love Phil, and they’re going to be screaming at each other. They shouldn’t serve any alcohol that day is what I think.”
Footnote
Billy Mayfair is returning to action one month after being diagnosed with, and having surgery for, testicular cancer. “Everything looks great, trust me,” he said Tuesday.
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
