Golf Town is proud to host a viewing party for Capital One’s The Match on November 23 at all of our 47 locations! RSVP today!
It’s the match we’ve all been waiting for. Tiger Woods, arguably the greatest golfer of all-time, against Phil Mickelson, the people’s champion who might well be the most imaginative golfer since Seve Ballesteros, sparring head-to-head in Las Vegas.
How do these two golfers, who are going to battle it out in a $9-million, made-for-TV event, stack up when you look at their careers?
On Friday November 23rd at 3pm EST, we’ll be hosting a viewing party at all Golf Town locations. Join the 1,200+ golf fans from coast-to-coast that have already RSVPed for this hugely anticipated showdown.
Phil
Age: 48
Career on-course earnings: $87.6 million
Net Worth: $375-million
Wins: 43 PGA Tour Wins
Major Championships: 5
“The whole point is the winner-take-all thing. That’s the exciting part about it.”—Phil Mickelson
Tiger
Age: 42
Career on-course earnings: $112.2 million
Net Worth: $740-million
Wins: 80 PGA Tour Wins
Major Championships: 14
“We’re able to showcase golf at a different time and different platforms and I think this will be fun.”—Tiger Woods
You can’t help but think Tiger is the heavy favourite in this matchup. Tiger has the second-highest PGA Tour win total in history, and he’s only second because he spent most of a half-decade derailed by various injuries. In any other era, Phil’s 43 wins would be incredible (he also has 10 European Tour wins), but it pales in comparison to Woods.
Tiger’s second in major championship wins to Jack Nicklaus, and is in the discussion for the GOAT (greatest of all time), a title he might hold outright had personal issues and a troublesome back not slowed his pace. At the very least, Woods is the second-greatest of all time when it comes to major championships.
Mickelson was slow to get his first win, and held the tag of “greatest golfer without a major” for a long time. But when he broke through, he did so in a big way.
The Battlefield
The course: Shadow Creek (Las Vegas)
Designer: Tom Fazio
A course crafted out of the desert, Shadow Creek cost a reported $48-million to construct.
Ranked: 26 on Golf Digest’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses in America list.
Tale of the Tape
In many ways, it isn’t just a battle of golfers, but a contest of equipment as well. Woods famously signed a deal with TaylorMade in 2017 before getting reinjured, leaving it unclear as to whether he’d return to the sport. When he came back this year, he was using a TaylorMade M2 driver, before making the move to a M3 driver
It seemed to work, with Woods once again becoming one of the longest on tour, averaging 303-yards off the tee this past season.
Mickelson, who is notorious for tinkering with his equipment (remember the two drivers at Augusta or no driver at a British Open), uses a Callaway Rogue Sub Zero driver with a HZRDUS shaft, and came in just behind Woods, at 54th in driving distance at a touch over 300 yards on average. Phil, who plays a combination of Epic Pro irons, X Forged Utility irons and Apex MB irons, struggled a bit with finding greens in regulation (it helps when you’re a short game wizard), and finished the year at 136th in green in regulation, well behind Woods, who was 67th.
All down to the short game?
With that in mind, might the Woods against Mickelson match come down to who putts best? If that’s the case, Mickelson has the edge, finishing 2018 in 10th in strokes gained putting, using an Odyssey Versa #9 White putter. Woods was 39th—not far behind—but struggled to find a putter he loved in 2018. After experimenting with some TaylorMade models, he eventually went back to his trusty Scotty Cameron Newport 2, which fueled 13 of his 14 major championship victories and was in his bag for his TOUR Championship win.
Golf Town is proud to host a viewing party for Capital One’s The Match on November 23 at all of our 47 locations! RSVP today!
