The occasionally frosty relationship between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson has thawed, if not evolved into an outright armistice, bordering on a comfortable alliance.
Over the past year or two, the game's two biggest guns have become downright tolerant of one another, exchanging good-natured taunts and barbs, not to mention gifts and condolences. It has made for entertaining theater at times.
When Woods' first child was born, Mickelson sent a kid-sized ping-pong table as a gift. It also doubled as a reminder of sorts that Lefty had schooled Woods in ping-pong in the team room at a previous cup competition. Woods recently sent Mickelson some conciliatory text messages when it was learned that Lefty's wife and mother had cancer. Woods' father died of the same ailment.
Seated near one another at the interview-roon dais at the Presidents Cup last month, Woods kept looking down at the tabletop and smirking, shaking his head whenever Mickelson offered some crazy answer to a media question. It's easy to tell that they have come to enjoy giving each other the needle.
Another example came this week in China, where both are playing in the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Woody and Lefty appeared at a publicity stunt along the waterfront two days before the tournament started and Woods couldn't resist offering up a little trash talk. Here's the text of the barb, offered as Mickelson was nearby, grinning.
Question: With golf becoming an official Olympic sport, will you compete to win a medal in 2016?
Woods: "Well, I have to qualify first in 2016. Christ, I'll be 40 years old in 2016."
Moderator: "Still young."
Woods: "Younger than Phil." (Laughter).
It's interesting to note that, over the years, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus became friends after fiercely competing on the course and in the business world for decades. Maybe that's finally happening with Woods and Mickelson, who have more in common than they might believe.
