1
OAKLAND HILLS
Tiger Woods squinted, incredulous. He was unable to determine the exact landing point but too furious to care as his gaze quickly turned into a sharp dagger aimed squarely at Phil Mickelson.
Woods did all he could to maintain complete ambivalence about Mickelson’s poorly hit shot as he stood on the back of the 18th tee, but his eyes betrayed him. “What the hell are you doing?” might have been an appropriate thought bubble, although the actual language a bit saltier.
The two most talented players in golf whose indifference toward each other was not lost on anyone in the game were paired together at the 2004 Ryder Cup, with the hope that differences would be put aside for the good of team U.S.A. in its biennial competition against Europe. It was a surprising and controversial pairing, given their uneasy relationship, the fact that they rarely, if ever, played casual golf together—not to mention the huge bull’s-eye placed on the backs of the two biggest names in American golf.
It wasn’t like Tiger and Phil were exchanging Christmas cards and getting together for weekend barbecues or even offering up the most benign of golf advice to one another.
And so their day as Ryder Cup teammates could not have been a bigger disaster, with the look on Woods’ face portraying a venom no words could describe, their struggles in two matches together at Michigan’s Oakland Hills Country Club epitomizing American incompetence that week. They were about to lose for the second time in a span of 10 hours, setting the tone for a European rout, with Tiger and Phil the biggest scapegoats, deserved or not.
Hal Sutton, the U.S. captain, was a no-nonsense former major champion who, in his own playing career, stood up to both Jack Nicklaus and Woods in capturing prestigious titles. Given the honor of leading his own U.S. Ryder Cup team, Sutton saw no reason why Tiger and Phil should not only get along but also prosper. Beating Jack at the 1983 PGA Championship gave Hal a certain gravitas, as would his showdown 17 years later when he held off Tiger to win the 2000 Players Championship. “Be the right club today!” is a phrase still uttered in celebration of his clinching approach shot to the final hole at TPC Sawgrass that held off Woods—who would go on to win three major championships that year. Sutton certainly wasn’t worried about hurting anybody’s feelings or how they might have viewed each other.
“When I announced they were going to be partners, the crowd roared,” Sutton said in an interview 16 years later. “Everyone loved it. That is what people wanted to see.”
And yet …
“I thought it was a very poor idea,” recalled Steve Williams, who caddied for Woods for 13 of his major championships, including five Ryder Cups, and was on the bag from 1999 through 2011. “It was just bizarre. Earlier that week, Phil was practicing at another golf course, and you can imagine what Tiger thought of that.
“Whilst I get what Hal was trying to accomplish by putting two of golf’s universal superstars in the same group, I don’t think he consulted enough people to know whether he thought that pairing was going to be good that day. And you saw it immediately. When they went to the first tee, Phil, being a left-hander, went to the left side of the tee. Tiger was on the right. But when it comes to the Ryder Cup, guys should be standing together. Right from the first tee, you could see that wasn’t going to happen.”
* * *
Woods spent the majority of his wildly successful pro career to that point swatting away any runs made at him by Mickelson, who forged his own level of brilliance and popularity while left in Tiger’s immense shadow. Only a few months prior, at the Masters, Mickelson finally won his first major championship at age 33, a mystifying omission on a résumé that would grow to Hall of Fame stature. But his career achievements to that point were lacking to a level that Woods could not comprehend.
At 28, Woods had already captured eight major championships and dominated the sport unlike any other player. He wasn’t keen on allowing anyone to get too close, certainly not a player he deemed to be among his major competitors. Mickelson, five years older and with more than a four-year head start in the professional game, was a huge fan favorite who signed autographs for hours on end, posed for photographs, smiled, made small talk, and generally endeared himself to the masses. There are those who believe it was done purposely to counter Woods, always the cold-blooded competitor, who typically had blinders on when navigating a crowd, a stark difference from the more accommodating Mickelson. And while he was well aware of Mickelson’s talent, Woods thought “Lefty” came across soft as a golfer, his career record disappointing. Mickelson’s victory earlier that year at Augusta National only put a small dent in the imposing wall Woods erected between the two golf titans.
It also left Woods quietly seething. While he grudgingly respected Mickelson’s game, he didn’t much like Lefty stepping up to take the hardware he wanted to horde. They were about to embark on the greatest, most intense portion of their rivalry, when they would trade green jackets, and yet both experience the highs and lows that go with the pursuit of the biggest titles.
Not helping Woods was the still-lingering taste of a poor 2004 by his standards. He won just once on the PGA Tour and was not a threat at any of the four major championships as he endured the process of retooling his swing under a new coach, Hank Haney, a relationship that would not become public for months. At the Masters, where Phil prevailed with a dramatic 18th-hole birdie to edge Ernie Els by a stroke for a gratifying and electrifying first major title, Tiger finished tied for 22nd, a third-round 75 knocking him out of any chance to contend.
And now here they were, expected to get along for this lone week, work together, put any differences aside. They might have put up a good front, especially before the cameras and even to the 10 other teammates. But it was a big ask of Tiger and Phil. Especially Tiger, who was not close to his peers back then. That was part of his aura: keeping everyone at a rigid arm’s length while letting the legend build.
* * *
Oakland Hills Country Club has a long, storied history in American golf, although neither Tiger nor Phil can count much success at the venue located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.
When the 2004 Ryder Cup commenced, it had been eight years since the last big professional tournament, the 1996 U.S. Open, won by Steve Jones. Mickelson won eight PGA Tour events to that point and was competing in his sixth U.S. Open, fourth as a pro. But Mickelson was not a factor, finishing in a tie for 94th after 108 players made the cut. Woods, still an amateur and playing his second U.S. Open and just months from turning pro, wasn’t much better, finishing in a tie for 82nd.
So while the venue might not have lent much in the way of positive vibes for Tiger and Phil, it certainly did for the Americans. And it was the first Ryder Cup to be played in the United States since the stirring yet controversial American victory at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1999, where there was considerable unruly fan behavior, the bulk of it directed at European star Colin Montgomerie. The U.S. team overcame a 10–6 final-day deficit to post a rousing victory—and that turned out to be the only time that Woods and Mickelson played on the same winning Ryder Cup team.
In 2002, after the matches had been postponed a year due to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, both sides vowed to tone down the rhetoric and have a more civil competition at the upcoming Ryder Cup being played at The Belfry in England. Europe prevailed for the third time in four Ryder Cups, with both Tiger and Phil having their moments of frustration.
Mickelson was a respectable 2–2–1 but suffered a huge upset at the hands of Welshman Phillip Price in Sunday singles, losing 3 and 2. Price, who made the 2001 team, which was locked after the Ryder Cup was postponed, was in poor form.
European captain Sam Torrance showed little faith in Price, as he sat him the first day then played him in just one of the team matches, a second-day foursome in which he and partner Pierre Fulke lost to Mickelson and David Toms 2 and 1.
With the teams tied at 8 entering the final day, the vibe was intense. European golf fans smelled opportunity, every match crucial. Noise echoed throughout the American-style course and U.S. captain Curtis Strange would have expected a victory out of Mickelson, the No. 2 ranked player in the world. Price was ranked 119th and was “thrown to the wolves,” he said. But Price quickly got up three holes over Mickelson, who missed an 18-inch putt early on and never got closer than two holes, losing in a shocker that sent the English midlands into hysterics.
At a celebratory gathering among European players later that night, Englishman Lee Westwood toasted Price for his victory while standing atop a barroom table. Price, in all his glee, tugged at Westwood’s pants and said, “Tell ’em who I beat, Lee! Tell ’em who I beat!”
Yeah, taking down Mickelson was akin to Buster Douglas defeating Mike Tyson. It was the 11th of the 12 matches (the eighth decided) and put the Europeans in position to secure a victory two matches later when Paul McGinley halved his match against Jim Furyk in what eventually became a 15½ to 12½ win.
Like Mickelson, Woods also went 2–2–1, his singles match in the last position against Jesper Parnevik rendered meaningless with the Cup already decided, thus ending in a tie.
* * *
WOODS and Mickelson eventually went on to post two of the worst overall records in U.S. Ryder Cup history, but in 2004 their standing was such that they were still expected to dominate. It was a mistake American teams and captains often made, relying too much on their big stars. Although Woods was just 5–8–2 in his three appearances to that point, well, he was still Tiger, an intimidating presence on the golf course who possessed that remarkable history of match play success going back to his junior and amateur days. And Mickelson headed to Oakland Hills with an 8–5–3 mark but having been part of three losing teams out of four.
Nobody gave much thought to the idea of putting Woods and Mickelson together as partners. The conventional wisdom was you’d prefer to spread their strengths among other partners and give other players a boost. The theory went that you gave yourself two strong teams instead of one, although it never seemed to work out that way.
Strange, the 2002 captain, said he did ponder the idea for “about 60 seconds” before thinking better of it.
“What I saw were two type A personalities, highly motivated, competitive individuals who came from two completely different backgrounds,” Strange said. “Two individuals who looked at things differently, reacted differently. Different personalities. Other than golf, what did they have in common?”
And yet, if Sutton was looking for some sort of precedent, all he needed to do was go back to the days of American Ryder Cup glory, when the competition was more of an afterthought, a U.S. squad taking care of what was then a team comprised of players from Great Britain and Ireland.
Three times, Nicklaus played Ryder Cup matches with Palmer: once in 1971 and twice in 1973. For the early part of their careers, the golf legends were not exactly buddies. The combo went 2–1 in lopsided outcomes for the U.S. team.
In 1977, Nicklaus lost his famous “Duel in the Sun” with Tom Watson at Turnberry, shooting 65–66 to Watson’s 65–65 in one of the game’s most epic encounters. Afterward, Nicklaus walked off the green with his arm around Watson, congratulating him on his victory. It’s a scene that few could ever envision with Tiger and Phil.
The Nicklaus-Watson rivalry was intense, but it didn’t stop them from playing a match together that fall at the Ryder Cup played at Royal Lytham & St. Annes and prevailing easily. There was no talk of frostiness between them.
In fact, Nicklaus and Watson combined to go 4–0 in Ryder Cup play, winning three times during the 1981 matches played at Walton Heath—after the competition was expanded to include all of Europe.
It was a different time, and the Ryder Cup was then considered a foregone conclusion for the Americans. Still, what’s the big deal about rivals playing together in the Ryder Cup?
* * *
As is custom, each captain puts his first-day lineup and order together without knowing what the other captain will do. There is some maneuvering to get a strong team out first, and consideration is given to who might also be asked to play in the afternoon session.
At Oakland Hills, the order saw four four-ball matches (best ball) followed by four foursomes (alternate shot) on the first two days for a total of 16 points. The final day consisted of 12 singles matches, meaning every player on both teams would compete.
Only the first morning session results were to be announced on Thursday afternoon, and there were some rumblings that a Tiger-Phil pairing could be in the works. There was a collective tremble throughout Michigan when Tiger and Phil were presented as teammates to take on the European pair of Scotland’s Montgomerie and Ireland’s Pàdraig Harrington.
“We came here to win,” Sutton said. “I don’t know that we could pair two guys together that were more matched for one another than those two guys.”
Sutton was determined to sell the idea of a Tiger-Phil Ryder Cup pairing, and much of the attention centered on that despite the fact that theirs would be just 1 point out of 4 in the morning session—with the afternoon matches to be determined later.
The first four questions Sutton received in the Thursday news conference after the pairings were unveiled were about Tiger and Phil. In all, there were 31 queries, with 19 of them dealing with Woods and Mickelson in some form, ranging from how he told the two superstars about his decision to who they’d be playing to why Mickelson was practicing on another course.
“I wasn’t really concerned with if they were bosom buddies or anything,” said Sutton, who years later confirmed that neither player objected when told. “They know what the job is and they are going to go out there and they are going to get it done.”
“I thought it was super cool,” said Chris Riley, a member of the U.S. team that year who would play a match with Woods on Saturday. “They were the two best players in the world, and Hal was going out to get that point for sure.”
But Riley’s caddie at the time, John Wood, remembers feeling differently about it, despite the excitement.
“They had kind of a contentious relationship,” Wood said. “I don’t think they enjoyed each other. They did things very opposite from each other. Phil was struggling with his game a little bit at that point, too, going through an equipment change. I don’t think Tiger was thrilled with that.”
Sutton told Woods and Mickelson of his decision on Wednesday night and later notified the entire team of his plan. He reported no pushback, no resistance.
Woods and Mickelson said what you would expect them to say in such circumstances.
Tiger: “We’re totally excited about it, we’re geared up. Can’t wait to get out there and play.”
Phil: “I love the pairing of Tiger and myself. It’s been put up to us to get the U.S. side off to a good start.”
Of course, there was a downside that Woods fully acknowledged when asked. What if the two top players (Mickelson was ranked fourth in the world at the time) failed in such a setting?
“Obviously it has its pros and cons,” Woods said. “Throwing the top two guys out there, but if you lose, yeah it’s kind of tough.”
Mickelson spent Wednesday and most of Thursday practicing by himself on the North course, leading to speculation that he might be ill.
He was not physically sick, but Phil was certainly uneasy about the prospect of playing with Woods, for among other reasons the golf ball they would be using in the alternate shot part of the competition. Tiger’s ball was unlike anything Phil was used to hitting.
* * *
When it was learned the day before the start of the Ryder Cup that Mickelson was practicing on the North course and not with his teammates, foreheads ached across Oakland Hills due to pronounced eye rolls.
What the hell was he doing? Many thought it was simply Phil being Phil. Mickelson frequently would play a practice round off-site at another course leading into tournaments. Not a major championship, but perhaps the Players Championship or someplace where he felt it better to get away from the crowds and simply enjoy the golf leading into an event.
It wasn’t the typical way of doing things, but then again, Mickelson has never gone about his business in a conventional fashion.
But that wasn’t the reason.
Nor was it because Mickelson was trying to get used to the new Callaway clubs he put in play.
A few weeks earlier, Lefty signed a lucrative endorsement deal with Callaway to use the company’s clubs. This typically means a player is under contract to have a certain number of the company’s clubs in his bag. Mickelson would be paid millions per year—quite likely eight figures; if not, then very close—and Callaway would reap the marketing benefit of one of the game’s top players using its equipment.
This was great for Callaway—but not necessarily so great for Phil in this moment. Getting used to new equipment can take time. There are examples galore of players cashing in on their success, only to struggle while making the adjustment to new equipment. (It should be noted that Mickelson maintained a long-standing relationship with Callaway into his fifties.) Such changes are usually made when there is significant downtime. All players have to weigh this decision and how best to navigate it. Phil doing so in September right before the Ryder Cup was a curious move to say the least, and when Sutton heard about it in the weeks leading up to the event, he was furious.
Making Sutton stew even more was the fact that Mickelson needed to get used to not only his new equipment but also his own new Callaway golf ball. The clubs were one thing. But a new ball—and knowing there might be another ball to play in alternate shot—simply complicated matters even more.
“I never talked about that publicly,” Sutton said in a 2020 interview. “But [Phil] had to get used to the Callaway ball he had just switched to.”
Mickelson caught considerable heat before and after the Ryder Cup for that decision. He was called greedy, among other things. But Mickelson is an equipment geek. He first got interested in Callaway’s golf ball in January of that year. And living not far from the company’s Carlsbad, California, headquarters, Mickelson was a frequent visitor, testing and tweaking. Phil, much like Tiger, would work to gets his clubs exactly to the specifications he wanted.
And yet … not even that was the reason Mickelson ventured out alone the day prior.
It was because of Tiger’s golf ball. Not only was he still uncomfortable with the one he’d been planning to use, but he was also uncomfortable with the ball his partner used. This presented a big problem for Phil.
And it suggested that Sutton already made the decision to have Woods and Mickelson play together in the afternoon foursomes, the formal name for the format known as alternate shot, where having to play with Tiger’s golf ball would become an issue. It would have no impact if they simply played a morning four-ball match together, where they essentially could play by themselves and take the best score. And thus, another questionable decision.
In alternate shot, only one ball is used. And in the Rules of Golf, you must play the same ball for the entire hole. At the time, the Ryder Cup required that the same golf ball be used throughout the round (now you are allowed to change the ball on each tee), so even the idea of switching balls to one more of Phil’s liking on alternate holes was not going to fly.
Woods plays a ball that produces a lot of spin. That is a choice that works for him. Not so much for Phil. In fact, Mickelson found that hitting Woods’ ball into the wind presented a huge problem: it simply did not go as far for him. That’s what he was trying to work out the day prior to the matches. And there was no chance anything other than Tiger’s ball would be put into play. Everyone knew, including Phil, that when it came to that kind of decision, Tiger would prevail. That only added to the dynamic of what would be a failed team.
“They’re a terrible partnership,” said Harrington, who 17 years later was the European captain at the 2021 Ryder Cup. “Back in the day, you chose guys based on their personality, whether they are friends or not. Now it’s all about do they jell together as golfers? That was not a good pick. Who’s the captain [of their pairing]? Phil has to be the captain in every match he plays, but how can he be the captain when he’s playing with someone who is a better player than him?
“Phil and Tiger have great respect for each other’s game and understand who each one is. That doesn’t mean they make a good partnership on the golf course. We all know Phil is special. But it takes an individual to play from where Phil plays golf. And Phil knows that.”
That was Harrington’s nice way of saying that Mickelson’s reputation was as a player who sprayed the ball over the landscape.
* * *
If there was any apprehension on Sutton’s part, he certainly wasn’t letting on. He showed up on the first tee early Friday morning wearing a Texas-sized cowboy hat, one the U.S. caddies gave him as a gift—and one they also suggested he not wear at that time.
By the end of the day, Sutton would want to cover his eyes with that big lid, as bad as things played out. All hat, no cattle, as they say—not that there was anything he could do about it once he sent his players out to take on the Europeans.
And the signs were there as the first tee shots pierced the air—none finding the fairway among Woods, Mickelson, Harrington, and Montgomerie. Tiger went right, Phil went left and, symbolically, they were never together again.
“Tiger pushes his way right of the bunker I was in,” Montgomerie said. “Phil pushes his the other way. One way right. One left-hand rough. And they marched off. Now Pàdraig and I walked down the meter-wide path together with our caddies behind us. It’s interesting, isn’t it?”
Montgomerie never won a major championship, but he captured the European Tour’s Order of Merit eight times. He was also money in the Ryder Cup, never losing a singles match and going 20–9–7 over eight consecutive competitions from 1991 through 2006. As much as he struggled in the biggest events—and he never did win an official tournament title in the United States—the Scotsman was a rock for Europe, also captaining the team to victory in 2010. At the Ryder Cup, Monty walked with a swagger that was all too often missing in the major championships. But these were his majors, and he treated them as such.
Nobody bothered him, not even big, bad Tiger Woods. Monty also had experience playing against Woods in the Ryder Cup, having done so in 1997 and 2002. And the prospect of going up against Woods produced inspiration rather than dread.
Harrington would go on to win three major championships, including the PGA Championship that was played at Oakland Hills four years later. He also loved the Ryder Cup experience and relished the challenge.
“It was a no-lose situation for us, wasn’t it?” Montgomerie said. “We’re playing away from home. So it was game on. We’re underdogs. Hal Sutton has put them out first to get American momentum out there, to get a point on the board, to get the crowd going. And it was loud, boisterous.
“I’m not being derogatory in any way; it was all to lose for America. Nothing to gain. Expecting to win is never good in golf. It’s the hardest thing to achieve. Look at how many underdogs have won. It happens a lot. It was strange. We play as a team; Europe is very much a team. We’re probably one of the greatest team units that’s been brought together in international sport. We’re very proud of it. A tight group.”
Monty was describing this scene years later, when he was well into his senior career, and you could hear the passion in his voice. Like many of his European teammates, he loved the Ryder Cup, loved the camaraderie, loved being underappreciated, and loved taking down the Americans. European unity became the mantra over the years, whether you believe that has anything to do with playing good golf or not. Oftentimes, that’s all it is—just play better. But throughout a stretch of Ryder Cup dominance, European players bought into that idea with all of their souls.
For Monty, much of his Hall of Fame résumé was compiled from his Ryder Cup brilliance, and it was clear, even now, that talking about the competition still stirred his competitive instincts.
“But we felt we had an opportunity if we played together,” he said. “We weren’t going to beat them on the length off the tee. Or our ability with iron play. Not with chipping or putting, my God. Probably weren’t going to beat them with mind games. The only way to beat them that day was to score lower.”
And they did.
“Tiger was always an opportunity to go up against because Tiger was meant to win his match,” Harrington said. “You always felt good going out there. Everybody expects him to win, so it was a shot to nothing. And ever so more with the Tiger-Phil situation. We were both experienced at doing our own thing. You didn’t want to send someone out there who would try and not play their own game. We were older at that stage, we’re going to do our thing and play our game. They lost the shock value by saying they were going to play together. If they’re going to do it maybe they should have not told anyone and that would have produced some shock value.”
Monty set the tone when he knocked his approach from the bunker to 10 feet to set up a birdie and a 1-up lead. In fact, Montgomerie and Harrington combined to birdie the first four holes and never were less than 1-up the rest of the way.
That is not to say Tiger and Phil were terrible. They each won two holes in the match and combined to make five birdies. Many times, such a performance would win a match, which shines a light on the crapshoot that match play can foist on a player. In fact, none of the other three European teams made more than five birdies in that morning session. But Monty and Harrington combined to make eight birdies. Montgomerie also won two holes, and Harrington won four, including three between the 8th and 14th holes.
When Harrington birdied the 14th, the Europeans enjoyed a 3-up lead with four holes to play, all but clinching the match. And with all the blue on the scoreboard, it was a boost to the other European players on the course, who saw their teammates taking care of the American superstar team, to the shock of those lining the fairway ropes and packed into grandstands. Mickelson kept the match alive with a birdie at the 16th hole, but Montgomerie’s par at the 17th closed it out, with the Europeans winning 2 and 1.
The idea of Tiger and Phil leading the Americans on some dramatic charge to an overall team victory was gone.
* * *
Although they did not play particularly poorly, Woods and Mickelson lost that morning encounter, part of an overall U.S. drubbing that saw the Americans fail to win a single match, falling behind 3½ to ½. And it seemed an appropriate time to cut the losses and move on and try to salvage the afternoon session.
Instead, Tiger and Phil paired in the tricky alternate shot format against Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke—who defeated Woods in the final of the WGC Match Play Championship in 2000—and England’s Westwood.
Was Sutton being stubborn? Perhaps. But captains are often in no-win situations. They’re criticized for changing their minds and not sticking to the plan, while also taking heat for sticking to the plan and not changing their minds. Sutton didn’t waver.
In the afternoon, Woods and Mickelson got off to a fast start, winning the second, third, and fourth holes to take a 3-up lead. They combined to make two birdies and a par and were 3-up through five holes. But a bogey at the relatively simple sixth changed momentum—and the Tiger-and-Phil combo would not make another birdie the rest of the way. In fact, they won just a single hole, earning a par at the 17th to square the match after having fallen behind after a bogey at the 11th hole.
That set up the drama at the 18th, where winning the hole would give the Americans a much-needed victory.
“The United States needed to win that point or at least get a half,” said Williams, Woods’ caddie. “It was a big swing there. It’s a two-point swing as opposed to losing a point. It was pivotal.”
It was Mickelson’s tee shot and Williams could see that Mickelson and Mackay were taking some time to discuss the shot. He wondered if Woods might intervene. “You can imagine what he said to that. ‘Why don’t you say something?’” Williams said.
Mickelson chose a 3-wood—one of the new clubs he recently put in his bag—and sent the ball nowhere near intended, the expression on his face upon impact and body language as he leaned right an indication it was sailing wide left. The ball didn’t go out of bounds, but it came to rest against a mesh boundary fence.
Woods, arms crossed and watching from behind the tee, tried to follow the flight of the ball without making it look obvious, unable to see exactly where it was headed beyond a group of trees. The ball was unplayable, meaning Woods needed to take a penalty drop. The duo lost the hole to a Westwood-Clarke bogey and lost the match 1-up.
Those who were not playing in the afternoon session went to watch and cheer on the others, and since Riley was not playing, Wood, his caddie, decided to follow Tiger and Phil.
“You didn’t see them say a word to each other,” Wood said. “If it weren’t for the uniform, you wouldn’t even know they were teammates. Everybody was kind of excited to see what would happen, but there was also some trepidation. They are the biggest names in the world of golf. But to put them back out in the afternoon … everyone just kind of rolled their eyes. It didn’t work.”
Years later, at the 2016 Ryder Cup, Mickelson said that a lack of communication in his earlier Ryder Cups led to decisions like the one Sutton made. He suggested the pairing might have worked if he and Woods had been given notice weeks ahead of time, so Phil could work with Tiger’s ball. Mickelson later apologized to Sutton for the remarks and, to this day, laments what he said. “I overreacted, and I’ve done that several times in my career and I regret it,” Mickelson said.
But Sutton remained wounded by the entire episode—a decade and a half later. In discussing his tenure as captain, Sutton moved between anger, disappointment, even despair.
“He could have hit a square ball straighter than he hit the ball on 18 in that second match,” Sutton said. “Excuse after excuse after excuse. Give me a break. He was the fourth-best player in the world at the time. I don’t care what Tiger’s ball was made out of; he could have played it better than he did. He didn’t care what he said about me. It was made up stuff, almost. It was a half-truth.”
It is often said in sports that decisions are simply judged by their outcomes. Sutton looks like a genius if Woods and Mickelson win; he’s the goat if they don’t. Never mind that the players hit the shots. And never mind that, to some, the idea to put them together was perfectly understandable.
“I know what I thought when I first heard it,” said Davis Love III, who was scheduled to play in the second match behind Woods and Mickelson with Chad Campbell. “We’re going to send Tiger and Phil out and Davis and Chad and we’re going to win those first two matches. And I was like, ‘Let’s go get them.’ Nobody thought it was a bad idea. Nobody thought we could lose. We’re going to be 2-up [in matches]. We’re going to load the boat. That’s Hal being aggressive.
“Nobody in that team room late at night said that’s a bad idea. Now I don’t know what Tiger and Phil were saying.”
They weren’t saying much when it was over.
To put an exclamation point on a horrendous day for the Americans, Tiger and Phil went 0–2. And the U.S. team trailed 6½ to 1½ on their way to a record margin of defeat 18½ to 9½.
Mickelson’s final-hole drive is what is most remembered, and he took the brunt of the heat, whether it be for his decision to change clubs on the eve of the Ryder Cup or practice at another course, or simply because he didn’t get the job done along with Woods.
Sutton piled on—both then and now.
“We’ll all be scratching our heads on that,” Sutton said. “But the most important person that’s going to have to wonder about that is going to be Phil Mickelson. It’s not going to cause us any grief in the morning because he’s going to be cheering instead of playing.”
Mickelson was benched in the following morning session while Woods partnered with Riley in a 4 and 3 victory over Clarke and Ian Poulter. And their partnership underscored what had long been a simple strategy of captains: put players together who get along.
“It was the highlight of my professional career,” Riley said. “Just being on that team meant so much to me. And playing with Tiger solidified it. It was like the World Series to me. I know a lot of people made a lot out of Tiger and Phil playing, but I can tell you, Tiger was so competitive. He was super mad that we were losing and it showed.”
Woods was comfortable playing with Riley, a friend and player he never viewed as a threat.
Mickelson, meanwhile, carried the anger of how that all came about for years, pushing for changes to how the Ryder Cup captain is selected following another loss in 2014. Then, on the eve of the 2016 matches, he explained to a massive media throng why he objected to Sutton’s decision.
“We were told two days before that we were playing together,” Mickelson said. “And that gave us no time to work together and prepare.”
According to Sutton, Mickelson never mentioned that he was trying to get used to his own golf ball, too. But he stressed needing time prior to the event to test Tiger’s golf ball.
“It doesn’t allow me to play my best,” he said. “What allows me to play my best is to learn the course, sharpen my touch on the greens, sharpen my chipping of the rough and ball striking, and so forth.
“Instead I’m taking four or five hours, and I’m out trying to learn another ball to allow us to play our best. Had we known a month in advance, we might have been able to make it work. I think we probably would have made it work. But we didn’t know until two days prior.”
The bottom line is, the United States lost another Ryder Cup. The Sunday singles played out like a funeral, as the Americans began the day trailing 11–6, a huge deficit that would have required them to earn 8½ points out of 12; it was nearly impossible.
Woods and Mickelson were the first two players out for the United States, with the hope of gaining some early momentum. That worked with Tiger, who defeated Paul Casey 4 and 3. But Phil couldn’t deliver, getting 2-up over Sergio García through eight holes but failing to make another birdie and losing 3 and 2.
Halfway through the singles matches, the Europeans clinched the Ryder Cup.
And Tiger and Phil were part of the problem. Woods went 2–3, Phil 1–3. It was a humiliating defeat, the fourth in five Cups.
And it did nothing to solidify a relationship that Sutton seemingly wanted to force.
“I’m looking at them, and they look like they don’t care for one another,” Sutton said in 2021. “But I left every Ryder Cup and everybody I ever played with as a closer friend to them win or lose. So I said to myself, if something I did, a decision I made, to make them closer, then everybody wins. Golf wins. Everybody wins. So that was the thinking behind it. I didn’t think that two of the best players in the world could run afoul that far. I don’t think anybody saw that.”
In the aftermath of the Ryder Cup, Sutton said, “You know, Arnold and Jack didn’t start out to be the best of friends. There was a kind of dethroning going on there. They ended up being great friends. I felt the world of golf would be better off if Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson became friends, and I felt like if they played together, had fun and beat somebody, they would end up being friends.
“They didn’t beat anybody. It couldn’t be their fault. It had to be my fault. It had to be.”
If Sutton was bitter, well, it was understandable. He was vilified, and he felt the sting. During an interview more than 16 years later, the disappointment was clear in his voice. Emotional, Sutton said the criticism was so severe it caused him to leave the game. Sutton, who won 14 times and went 7–5–4 in four Ryder Cup appearances, never played a regular event on the PGA Tour after his first tournament of 2006. To think that the honor of being a captain in an event that is supposed to be an exhibition could lead to that outcome is both shocking and sad.
Woods and Mickelson had their individual careers to get back to, but neither was pleased. At the time, they combined to win nine major championships. None of the players they faced in that Ryder Cup managed a single major victory to that point.
“The two best players in America are supposed to win most of the time,” Sutton said. “It should have worked, but they will never have another chance.”
This was but one example of the Tiger-Phil dynamic. It was never simple. It was often explosive. And it rarely disappointed. This time, the circumstances didn’t produce the intended result, and it only heighted the friction between two of the game’s most famous combatants.
And it came at a crucial juncture in their careers, with a trail of history in their past and plenty more to come.
TIGER & PHIL. Copyright © 2022 by Robert Harig.
