Monster Win
Nick Watney
Adams’ COR Values ( 6)
Since when did Woods and Mickelson, in
the same group, become an irrelevant warm-
up act for the main show in professional golf?
The game’s young rockers know Woods
and Mickelson – relegated to oldies-but-not-
so-goodies status last week in their sport’s
changing cosmos – might rediscover their
perfect pitch and win at any time.
But in Florida on Thursday, Friday and
Saturday, Phil and Tiger were a two-man
band on the run. Woods woke up a smattering
of echoes Sunday with a 66 and a back-door
top 10 at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at
Doral. But together, they were the non-story
of the week. They played in each other’s com-
pany for the first 54 holes. The needle never
moved. The hype died aborning.
As a pairing, Woods-Mickelson used to be
an “event.” At Doral, their three-day dulla-
palooza was a buzzkill.
Meanwhile, the preternaturally limber
Dustin Johnson and the laser-focused Nick
Watney staged a Sunday shootout in the south
Florida sunshine that ended when Watney ran
in a 13-footer for birdie on the famed “Blue
Monster,” Doral’s final hole. It was just the
third birdie of the day on the 72nd hole and it
notched Watney’s third PGA Tour victory.
A couple of warhorses – Nick Price in
the U.S. and Sandy Lyle in China – captured
senior events, Lyle’s coming after almost 20
winless years. “You wonder,” Lyle said, “ … if
you’ll ever win again.”
And we wonder if Woods wonders the
same thing.
Brian Hewitt
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