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Tiger Woods potential return not enough to distract Ian Poulter at CA Championship
Englishman focused on winning the CA Championship, despite rumours that Tiger Woods is set to return.
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Tiger Woods working again with swing coach Hank Haney
Tiger Woodss return has moved a step closer after it emerged that he has resumed work with his swing coach, Hank Haney.
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Paul Casey draws on Seves magic going into CA Championship
Paul Casey says Seve Ballesteros buccaneering style lies behind English golfers success.
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Phil Mickelson loses right to use his rule breaking wedge
Phil Mickelson will no longer be allowed to use the 20-year-old Ping wedge that caused so much consternation at Farmers Insurance Open.
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Noh Seung yul wins in Malaysia to become second youngest winner on European Tour
South Korean teenager wins Malaysian Open to become second-youngest winner on the European Tour.
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Europes elite follow in Seve Ballesteross footsteps at Honda Classic
A conquistador called Seve Ballesteros played golf tournaments in America and changed the world.
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Tiger Woods turns down $75m sponsorship offer from bookmaker Paddy Power
Tiger Woods has turned down a $75 million sponsorship offer from Irish bookmaker Paddy Power.
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Camillo Villegas secures share of Honda Classic lead with Anthony Kim
Camillo Villegas recorded a second successive 66 to secure a share of the lead at eight-under with Anthony Kim.
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Oliver Wilson one shot off lead at Honda Classic
Englands Oliver Wilson was just one shot off the pace at the Honda Classic after a bogey-free first round of 66.
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Tiger Woods will return in time for the Masters believes Jack Nicklaus
Jack Nicklaus suspects Tiger Woods will be itching to play at Augusta and is likely to take his place in the field.
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Tiger Woods caddie claims he would have blown whistle on affairs had he known
Steve Williams has said he knew nothing about Tiger Woods extramarital affairs and was angry with him over the scandal.
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Practice doesnt make perfect for Laura Davies
Laura Davies has offered the most powerful antidote to Padraig Harringtons habit of obsessive practising.
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John Daly hits back at golf writer on Twitter
John Daly posts Florida newspapaer writers mobile number on Twitter after his PGA Tour disciplinary file is written about.
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Padraig Harrington still tortured by doubts ahead of Honda Classic
Padraig Harrington sounds as if he needs a session in the psychiatrists chair ahead of this weeks Honda Classic.
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John Dalys PGA record sheet revealing fines and suspensions is made public
In 18 years as a professional the wild thing has paid nearly $100,000 in fines and been suspended five times.
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Tiger Woods and the Ryder Cup nightmare
What would the US captain do if Woods failed to qualify automatically?
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Tiger Woods dropped by Gatorade
Energy drink company are third major sponsor to pull the plug on Tiger Woods following revelations about his private life.
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Ian Poulter charges into Phoenix Open contention with a 63
A second-round charge has put Ian Poulter close to the top in the Phoenix Open.
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Justin Rose on the rise at the Phoenix Open in Arizona
Justin Rose put himself in the mix at the Phoenix Open in Arizona with a six-under-par opening round.
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Colin Montgomerie: Tiger Woods will find it hard if he plays in the Ryder Cup
Turning up at Celtic Manor could be one of the hardest things Tiger ever does, writes Colin Montgomerie.
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Phil Mickelson steps out of Tiger Woodss shadow as golfs main attraction

golf story by telegraph.co.uk , 2010-02-08 15:46:09 GMT 699


Phil Mickelson steps out as golf's main attraction
Where's the Tiger? Phil Mickelson can go it alone as the new season begins Photo: EPA

Over the next four days in San Diego the world’s second best golfer, gracing the stirringly-named Farmers Insurance Open with his presence, is likely to field questions almost exclusively about one gaping absence.

The deadline for committing to the US Tour start at Torrey Pines came and went without a word from Tiger Woods, who has won there seven times. That is all to the good for Mickelson, who can make his season’s debut unencumbered by the shadow of his nemesis, while being feted at every turn by crowds who go weak-kneed at his easy grin.

But after two months in which every jumped-up journeyman has postured as an expert in crisis management or sex addiction, will Mickelson be able to help himself? Memories of the slights from Woods, who icily ignored him during the final round of last year’s Masters, or from Woods’s caddie and sidekick, Steve “I can’t stand the -----” Williams, are seared upon his psyche.

Assuredly, Woods’s industrial-level philandering offers easy ammunition. Mere anticipation of the possible Mickelson broadsides has America’s press pack slavering. It was almost seven years ago when, with golf’s defining antipathy still in its infancy, 'Lefty’ accused his rival of having “inferior equipment”. He was talking about golf clubs.

Popular images of Woods and Mickelson have never been so polarised. In one corner lurks Woods, unshaven and swaddled in a towel, skulking among the outbuildings of a Mississippi rehab centre, while in the other stands Mickelson, beaming as if he has just stepped out of a toothpaste advert and bolstered by the respect earned from his public for supporting his wife and mother through breast cancer.

The last time the rivals stood together was in Shanghai, at the HSBC Champions event in November, when Mickelson faced down a Sunday charge from Woods and prevailed. Now that Mickelson is ensconced as the tour’s main draw, he can cement the ascendancy. He can resort to some shameless vote-winning tactics, too, if he likes.

American golfers have shown often enough at Ryder Cups that they do not shrink from using their families as publicity props — do not expect Amy Mickelson to be far from the 18th green in the very plausible event of victory this weekend.

More probable, though, is that Mickelson will handle any mention of Woods with silk rather than spite, delivering well-crafted words of sympathy and thus reminding his legions of fans why they like him so much more than the other guy. And where these two are concerned, it is inescapably a question of who you like: to embrace Mickelson is to admire club-twirling audacity verging on recklessness, while to side with Woods is to respect an awesome talent tempered by a sometimes extraordinary lack of grace.

The received wisdom is that Mickelson can seize upon this interregnum in the sport to usurp. Automatically he becomes the world’s de facto No 1, but such is the flair of his play that the qualification should not apply for long.

Woods would be loath to accept that. It is not easy to forget how his face creased in disgust when Mickelson, his Ryder Cup partner one miserable Michigan day in 2004, duck-hooked a drive nearly into the next state. They have never been paired in matchplay competition since, indeed have rarely even talked.

The PGA Tour money men are looking to Mickelson in the hope that he can enliven a calendar rendered frighteningly arid by the loss of Woods. They will look in vain. The bottom line at Torrey Pines has been enough to make them cry into their clubhouse cocktails: ticket sales down, hospitality tents fewer, and a title sponsor that came at a cut-price rate.

It used to be said of Joe Frazier that nobody cared about him until Muhammad Ali came along. A similar uncomfortable truth hovers over Mickelson. This amiable 39 year-old has a fervent following in the United States but he has never, unlike Woods, gone global. He is undeniably important to golf but he will never, unlike Woods, be the underpinning of the entire industry.

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Mental Rules for Golf
TowleHouse Publishing ( 29 February, 2004 )
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Our Price : £ 10.95
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Excellent comprehensive yet clear compendium of golf basics
This is the perfect book for beginners. The instructional chapters are clear and basic. The additional information on clubs, golf course ratings, ball trajectories, etiquette and more provide answers to all sorts of mysteries that await the beginner golfer.

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