Because golf can be played for much of a lifetime, players' ability to handle changes over the years can define them. In the matter of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson -- advantage, Phil.
Phil MIckelson watches his tee shot on 17 during Thursday's first round of the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. Mickelson is tied for fourth, two shots off the lead.Dublin, Ohio -- Golf, famously said to be a good walk spoiled, has been all about the spoilage lately with Tiger Woods.
Phil Mickelson makes it more about the walk, in terms of the long, flawed, fragile progress everyone makes through the passages of life. The game is all about the long march, with maturation measured in stages, like the growth rings of trees.
Less than two weeks from his 40th birthday, Mickelson has hit his stride.
The Masters champion shot a bogey-free 5-under-par 67, two strokes off the lead at the Memorial Tournament in Thursday's rain-plagued opening round.
It ended as usual for Mickelson, with a big, adoring gallery applauding him on the final green, with Phil putting out between the storms that pelted rain, flashed lightning, and held up play for nearly three hours with two stoppages. Then he signed most of the trinkets and pictures and flags and what-nots that fans thrust at him.
The course was rain-softened and windless. "There were a lot of birdies out there," said Mickelson.
He started play on the 10th tee and attacked the front nine with three straight birdies on the fifth, sixth and seventh holes after the first rain delay.
Woods shot a par 72 and was inconsistent, as might be expected from a player with only nine complete rounds of tournament golf under his belt this year.
His short game kept him from a start that could have reduced his chances dramatically. The key may have been the 10-foot putt for a bogey he made on the sixth hole after getting a bad break with an approach shot that appeared to hit a sprinkler head and trampolined over the green.
He rallied with a 20-foot downhill racer to birdie the ninth and a booming bunker shot to birdie 10.
It was a day when players had to go low or possibly get lost.
It was an inconsistent day for Tiger Woods during the first round of the Memorial. Here he reacts after missing a putt on the 14th hole on his way to a par 72 that left him tied for 51st.Woods is the defending champion here and a four-time winner. But everyone knows that he lost his way amid his great success. His stated goals before the Memorial were modest. He wanted to play all four rounds, then take that experience to the U.S. Open in two weeks, and then get to Sunday at the Open with a chance to win.
Mickelson has never won here, but he has loved the Muirfield Village course since first playing it as a junior golfer in 1986. "It would really mean a lot to me to win Jack Nicklaus' tournament," said Mickelson.
Players often pay tribute to the Memorial founder's career in golf, but perhaps his life off the course is part of it now. There was never a whisper of improper behavior in Nicklaus' marriage or family life.
Woods and Mickelson have never become great rivals like Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer or Nicklaus and Tom Watson. But maybe it is not too late.
Once, Mickelson was hailed as the next great player. Then Tiger played the 1997 Masters like Sherman played Georgia.
Woods' focus was obvious from the start -- Nicklaus' record of 18 professional majors won. "It will take a career," he said.
Woods eventually held all four major titles at one time, although not in a calendar year for the Grand Slam. Mickelson became for over a decade The Best Golfer Not to Win a Major. It is a left-handed compliment, perfect for the player known as Lefty.
Until he won the 2003 Masters with a bunny hop of a celebration on the 72nd green, Mickelson was best known for playing the 1999 U.S. Open with a beeper attached to his belt, the better to fly home to San Diego if his extremely pregnant wife, Amy, went into labor.
Woods by then was said to have only history as his rival. But the wise old players, like Nicklaus, said not so fast. There were life changes to be encountered.
They appeared in the death of Woods' father and in the battle with cancer Mickelson's wife and mother are waging at the same time now.
There was injury, as the torque generated by Woods' ferocious swing shredded his left knee, and a wrist injury dogged Mickelson throughout the 2007 season.
There was marriage, then family.
Sports are not a morality play, but so far Mickelson has not marched on to the back pages of the tabloids or into the story line of the television shows that love to see idols tumble off pedestals. Tiger has the worst scorecard going in such matters since Roberto de Vicenzo signed for an incorrect number and eliminated himself from the playoff for the 1968 Masters.
It is an intriguing role reversal. Tiger scrambling around the course, Phil making no bogeys; Phil high on the leader board, Tiger up the muddy track; Phil, leaving the biggest footprint on the game, not Tiger.