Tiger Woods says he is looking forward to something different when he and Phil Mickelson compete in a head-to-head golf showdown during United States’ Thanksgiving weekend in November.
The winner of the 18-hole duel at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas will walk away with $9 million.
The clash of the two Americans, who have won 19 major championships between them, has been expected for months.
The 42-year-old Woods and Mickelson, who is 48, drew lots of attention when they played a practice round together at Augusta National before this year’s U.S. Masters.
When they were paired at The Players a month later, Mickelson floated the idea of the duel.
WarnerMedia say the pair will selectively make side-challenges against one another during the match.
Perhaps raising the stakes by challenging the other to a long-drive, closest-to-the-pin or similar competition during a hole.
“Anybody can win an 18-hole boat race but we’re going to have fun doing something that’s never been done before and have on pay-per-view and doing something, trying to showcase golf and showcase golf in a different way, and, you know. I’ve been able to do something similar to this under the lights, as you saw at Battle of the Bridges and Showdown at Sherwood, just trying to do something different, this is definitely going to be that and it’s going to be. I think it’s going to be fun for everyone because we’re in a different era than we were then in those days. We’re able to showcase golf at a different time and on different platforms and I think this will be fun,” says Woods.
The former world number one has in the meantime made his FedExCup playoffs return, after a five-year absence.
He shot a mediocre level-par 71 in the first round of The Northern Trust to sit five shots behind the leaders in Paramus, New Jersey.
Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson carded 67s to lurk a shot off leaders Jamie Lovemark, Vaughn Taylor, Sean O’Hair and Kevin Tway on a day of fairly low scoring on the rain-soaked layout.
The top 125 players in the FedExCup standings were eligible for the first of four playoff events that will culminate with a 30-player field for the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta at the end of September.
