Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will forever be known as two of the best golfers in the history of the sport. Given how talented each was during the primes of their careers, Woods and Mickelson were often battling for the top spot in some of the most notable golf tournaments in the world.
They’ve been grouped together more than 30 times for PGA Tour events, and according to some recent comments made by Mickelson (during a YouTube video posted by Grant Horvat), their clashes on the course apparently produced pretty even results.
“He owned me the first half of our careers. His record against me head-to-head was dominant.
The second part, I owned him. After 2007 I started working with Butch [Harmon] and I started doing really well head to head. Our head-to-head record when we were paired together —I believe it’s dead even.
It is now even when we play together. His record is his record. He’s the greatest of all time. I’ve seen him do things with a golf ball that I’ve never seen anybody be able to do. His play in 2000 was indescribable, how good it was.”
Phil Mickelson believes the rivalry between him and Tiger Woods is “dead even”
To be fair to Mickelson, he did admit to Woods getting the best of him most of the time during the first half of the matchups they’ve had in the past. But in regards to his claim about their rivalry being “dead even” when looking at the total number of times they’ve gone head-to-head in the past, some context is definitely needed.
When Woods was out-performing Mickelson in the late 90s and early 2000s, he was doing it on the big stages like the U.S. Open and the Masters. The majority of the times in which Mickelson has finished with a better score than Woods, it’s happened on smaller stages like the Deutsche Bank Championship, BMW Championship, and Buick Open.
According to data compiled by NBC Sports, Mickelson only finished with a better score than Woods twice in the eight times that they’ve been in the same group for a major tournament.
In the sport of golf, the major championships are what define legacies. So, Mickelson can go right ahead and say that he held his own against Woods over the last three decades. But when it came to performing well on the biggest stages in golf, Woods was typically the one who emerged with the better score.
