Say what you want about The Match – and plenty have – but the $9 million, pay-per-view shoot-out between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in Las Vegas tonight has certainly generated publicity.
Over the last couple of days, Tiger and Phil have been grinning and beaming like two men getting paid per square metre of dentistry.
An attempt at a boxing-style face-off for the cameras ended in guffaws and jolly backslapping as they smiled and winked like Liberace signing on for another lucrative run at the Vegas Hilton.
The photograph of a goofy Phil wrapping his arms around a vast bundle of dollar bills spread out on a table, meanwhile, has led to some observers roaring that the whole thing continues to be as tasteless as an unbuttered cracker.
Eddie Pepperell, the English European Tour winner who is a regular contributor to social media forums, described the affair as “putrid” while the former Ryder Cup captain, Paul McGinley, also aired his general concerns.
“In principle I don’t think it’s a bad thing but the highlighting of the $9 million in the publicity has brought an unnecessary narrative,” he said.
“That’s where it loses me. You’re talking about two of the wealthiest people anywhere in the world, playing for $9 million and making a big song and dance about it. The money is not adding to what they are doing. Mostly, it is taking away.”
But then, hard cash has always been at the root of such exhibitions. Almost 120 years ago, the great Harry Vardon went head-to-head with the celebrated Willie Park Jnr in a two-legged showdown at North Berwick and Ganton.
Vardon had pipped Park to the Open by a shot in 1898 and won the first prize there of £30. His thumping of the Scot in the 1899 challenge, dubbed by the press as “the greatest golf competition ever”, earned him a whopping £200. If Twitter was around then, the harrumphing masses would have been enraged by the obscenity of the sum.
As for tonight’s prize? “We don’t have the history of a Masters or a major championship, which is why the prize figure had to be so high because that creates an uncomfortable environment for us and creates pressure,” suggested Mickelson.
For two men worth about $2.5 billion, that was a novel take on Lee Trevino’s old line that “pressure is playing for five dollars a hole when you just have two in your pocket.”
We’re sure they will cope under the strain of it all. Then again? Mickelson is ranked fourth last on the PGA Tour’s driving accuracy stats and he bet Woods $100,000 that he would birdie the first hole. “Double it,” replied Woods. Fore!
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