LONDON: That Tiger Woods is taking on Phil Mickelson in a winner-takes-all match in Las Vegas today is very apt — the Sin City where anything tacky and vulgar goes now has its own sporting tribute.
The match-up, created after some playful chat from Mickelson before this year’s Players Championship, has obviously been billed as a clash between two of golf’s greatest players.
No argument there. As “Lefty” said of Woods: “He’s the greatest of all time. I’ve seen him do things with a golf ball that have never been done.” Mickelson, too, with five Majors and 43 PGA titles, can lay claim to being, as Woods in the mutual back-slapping press conference said: “One of the greatest players to ever pick up a golf club.”
What the PR guff and gold-plated nonsense conveniently missed out though is that this is a face-off that is at least 10 years too late. Rather like Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao getting in the ring in 2015 rather than 2009, the public clamor for such a face-off is now almost non-existent.
In their heyday the pair would be in contention for most, if not all, of the big titles and be only too aware that the form of the other was the one obstacle preventing victory. They were huge rivals who, at times, made no attempt to hide their mutual dislike of each other — their relationship at the 2004 Ryder Cup definitely looked more glacial than merely frosty.
Over the past five years the pair have won a combined two titles between them, have become friends and today’s clash is simply a trip down memory lane — Las Vegas being the place where washed-up stars go to earn lots of money in the autumn of their careers singing to people who lap up nostalgia.
Which brings us to the dollar signs. Up for grabs in the winner-takes-all face-off is $9 million and that is the real problem with this contrived clash. The sight of two multi-millionaires playing for such a sizeable sum in a meaningless event neither does them nor sport any favors. The pre-match PR shots of both smiling behind the stacks of cash is a sight they are both likely to end up regretting.
Both have shown some self-awareness since the figure was announced by saying some of the money would be going to their charitable foundations, but one cannot help but feel that the damage has already been done.
They have both claimed that the event will attract new fans to golf, which seems fanciful in the extreme considering no one can buy tickets to watch it on the course — only VIPs and sponsors will see the clash in the flesh — and it is only available on TV via pay-per-view.
In its most purest form sport is a spectacle where, even in these days of eye-watering winner’s checks, it is the trophy rather than the promise of a better bank balance that both athletes and fans are seduced by. Woods vs. Mickelson is the antithesis of this, a tawdry, corporate construct where, as the lack of any fans on the course illustrates, only monied men (and you can bet it will be mostly men) are allowed up close.
What attracts new fans to a sport is thrilling displays of brilliance and bare-faced cheek when it matters, and in front of an audience of millions. Both Tiger and ‘Lefty’ have produced numerous moments of magic down the years so as to not need to take part in this sorry show.
Woods’ recent win at the Tour Championship — his first win in five years — is an obvious case in point. It was a sporting tale of recovery and redemption that no number of staged matches like today’s can even dream of matching.
So forgive us if we yawn and shut our eyes while the two multi-millionaires take part in this poor exhibition. It is too late, too exclusive, too contrived and shining a light on too much of what is bad about modern-day sport for any discerning sport fan to take much of an interest in.