Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth can leave Tiger Woods in the dust again in Phoenix

Tiger Woods in his prime, myth has it, could roll his golf cap onto the first tee and his victims -- er, playing partners -- of the day would wilt and deferentially hand him back his hat as he handed them their asses.

Those guys were not named Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, the two kids who’ll tee it up with the old guy in the first two rounds of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and it’s not 2000 anymore.

For sure, the 39-year-old Woods, who will make his first start at Commissioner Wormer’s Animal House in 14 years, remains the star of the show. “Old school, back in the day, raised the roof,” he reminisced on Tuesday about his 1997 hole-in-one on the infamous par-3 16th, as organizers expected an even greater crush of rowdies than usual to cram through the gates at TPC Scottsdale to witness Woods’ 2015 PGA Tour debut (GIF via Kyle Porter).

Indeed, with Tiger’s appearance combined with the Super Bowl taking place in nearby Glendale, officials expect the number of swarming fans at TPC Sawgrass this week to smash attendance marks -- especially if Woods, who hopes to break an 18-month winless drought, is in contention over Super Bowl weekend.

Spectators last year set the Saturday record, when 189,722 rowdies swarmed through the gates for the third round.

That figure may be impressive, but it’s the number 63 that binds Spieth and Reed, two of the new breed raised on Tiger, to school Woods -- as in the low numeral each youngster posted the last time he played with the aging superstar.

“Yeah, I mean I wasn’t intimidated by any means,” Spieth said after hanging the 9-under on the former world No. 1 in last year’s second round at Torrey Pines as Woods rang up a 71 on his way to his first-ever 54-hole missed cut.

“I grew up watching him, obviously,” said the two-time tour winner and currently ninth-ranked player in the world, “so I’ve idolized him, watched him win majors and whatnot. It’s exciting to finally be paired with him. We played a practice round at the Presidents Cup and spent a good amount of time, so it wasn’t like the first time I ever met him ... [He’s] very easy to play with.”

Spieth, 21, enters the event on a roll, having won his last two worldwide contests, including Tiger’s Hero World Challenge last month.

Next up for No. 47 was Reed, the other guy out there in Woods’ signature red and black who has no back down in him. Reed has four Ws to Tiger’s 1 since August 2013 and made an impressive 3-0-1 Ryder Cup debut in September while the injury-ridden 14-time major champion watched the tilt from his Florida home.

The brash 24-year-old American, who, at No. 15, is climbing his way up to that top-five ranking he bragged about in March after his win at Doral, left the tourney host in his rearview mirror in the second round of the World Challenge when he scored his own 9-under 63 to the host’s 70.

“Back when everyone was really struggling when they were playing with Tiger, that was when he was also just absolutely dominating the game,” Reed said at the time. “I feel like now, because of how mentally strong he was, and us growing up watching that, and how he played, I feel like a lot of young guys now have the same mentality. Don’t really care who they’re playing with.”

The two 20-somethings and the elder statesman have a date on the first tee at 2:07 p.m. ET on Thursday and on No. 10 at 9:57 a.m. Friday.