The most remarkable aspect of this Tiger Woods comeback does not relate to results. Not yet, anyway.
That Woods and Phil Mickelson once had one of golf’s most intense rivalries is as well known as the mutual antipathy that existed while it was going on. In recent times there has been a deep thawing of the pair’s relationship. Tuesday Sawgrass saw the latest round of mutual appreciation between a duo who will be playing partners for the first two days of the Players Championship, in what represents a stunning switch in attitudes.
“Our relationship has certainly gotten a lot closer,” Woods said. “When I was trying to deal with the nerve in my back, trying to come back and trying to play and I wasn’t very good, he always texted me some very encouraging words.
“On top of that, when you guys all saw how I was chipping so poorly, my nerve and my back was not doing very good and I was flinching a lot, he offered numerous times to help. He’s one hell of a competitor and it’s always going to be a challenge to try to beat him. It’s going to be a blast here.”
Mickelson had earlier offered effusive praise of just how powerful Woods was in his prime. “It was the most remarkable golf in the history of the game and I think unrepeatable,” said the left-hander. “I think it was that good. I look at 2000 as being the benchmark, at the US Open as being the greatest golf I’ve ever witnessed and I believe ever has been played.
“It sucked to have to play against him. It really did. You looked at it and you said: ‘How am I going to beat this?’ There was a stretch there of a number of years that it was so impressive that it was hard to imagine it was actually happening.”
Woods has two Players victories to his name, the last in 2013, and is enjoying playing a full schedule for the first time since a fourth back surgery.
The 42-year-old said: “Twelve months ago if you would have said: ‘You’re going to be playing The Players and you’re going to have had a chance to win a couple of events,’ I would have said: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me; I can barely walk.’ I’m just so thankful to be able to have this opportunity again because I didn’t know if I would ever have.”
