Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson: The end of an era

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson said last week, would have the “last laugh” on the countless critics of his suddenly shocking and sloppy short game.

Wishful thinking by Lefty? He made his remarks hours before the abrupt exits of both aging luminaries -- Woods carding another injury-related withdrawal Thursday, and Mickelson missing yet another cut a day later from the Farmers Insurance Open.

It would certainly seem so, since the fog that delayed play and contributed to Woods’ glutes misfiring eventually lifted and left behind a thick cloud of doubt about what’s next -- if anything -- for the PGA Tour’s marquee attractions.

Woods and Mickelson -- like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning -- have been inextricably linked since Woods’ “Hello, World” moment almost 20 years ago. While Woods dominated their rivalry early on, Mickelson came on strong in the later years.

Every golf fan has a favorite Woods or Mickelson moment, many of them, naturally, from their legendary tours of Augusta National.

There was Woods’ heart-pounding, fist-pumping, “Oh my goodness!” chip shot on the 16th in the 2005 Masters:

And, of course, Lefty’s “shot of his life” from the pine straw at No. 13 five years later:

Now, the highlight reels are full, and a generation of players raised on a steady diet of Mickelson and Woods -- Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, et al -- are making memories for the ages as their boyhood idols struggle mightily down the stretch.

Theories abound about what’s going on with Woods. Even discounting his unofficial start at December’s Hero World Challenge (though those nine chunks and DFL certainly set the tone for what was to come), Woods’ recent woes are mind-blowing. He kicked off his 2015 campaign by recording a career-worst 82, missed the cut, and finished in a tie for last at the Phoenix Open. He was 2-over when he left Torrey after 11 holes with back pain.

Mickelson, who is slated to tee it up at the Honda Classic in two weeks after back-to-back MCs at Phoenix and Torrey, is renowned for his erratic play. So his pitiful putting on home turf at Torrey did not set off alarm bells as much as his hinting that he might bag it if he could not find a fix for his flatstick.

“My putting is beyond pathetic,” Mickelson said before hitting the road last Friday. “If I can’t get back to the levels of 2013 [when he won twice on tour, including the British Open, and ranked fifth in strokes gained-putting] I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”

The yakkers on Golf Channel were in a tizzy about whether Mickelson was dropping bread crumbs about a pending retirement -- and then quickly backpedaled, noting the aforementioned inconsistency.

Mickelson has a well-deserved reputation for getting up off the mat and landing a knockout blow when you least expect it. Exhibit A: winning that Open Championship after his surprise first victory on a U.K. links course a week earlier at the Scottish Open.

No doubt, the popular righty who bats lefty played like a tired 44-year-old and was as discouraged as he’s ever been when he left the Farmers, but he has unfinished business in the form of that evasive U.S. Open title he needs to complete the career grand slam.

So we know what drives Lefty. But what about Woods -- especially after the mixed messages emanating from his camp this week about why he’s on a break, if/when he’ll be back, and what truly ails the failing superstar?

In his mystifying online statement Wednesday night, Woods referred to the back injury that forced his most recent withdrawal -- the third in his last eight tour starts going back to 2014 -- but said health played no role in his decision to bow out of competition until he deems himself “tournament-ready.” That could be as soon as the Honda Classic, he said, and Woods’ buddy Notah Begay III suggested on Golf Channel his friend may “find something” on the range and be back before anyone had a chance to miss him.

On the other hand, Begay, who spent a few days with his former Stanford teammate, post-Torrey, noted that Woods was on his way to Colorado to watch his skier girlfriend Lindsey Vonn compete and was not working hard on his “embarrassing” game.

Indeed, photogs chronicled Woods making good on his promise to “spend time with the people that are important to me” when he greeted Vonn at the finish line Thursday.

“He’s sort of taken a step back and I think that was wise,” said Begay. “I don’t think the best thing to do was to get back out and play [at Torrey, after the disaster at Phoenix]. I think the best thing for him was to take some time off and recalibrate.”

Then Woods’ manager weighed in, further muddying the already murky waters.

“He wants to play right now, to be honest with you,” Mark Steinberg told GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard Wednesday night. “He’s chomping at the bit. Honestly, he competes to compete at the absolute highest level. Clearly these last two events weren’t up to that. When that swing gets grooved he’ll be ready to go.”

Even if Woods were to regain his form, it’s difficult to imagine him content with being one of the guys after he’s been The Man for most of his golf life. And if he really doesn’t care about breaking Jack Nicklaus’ majors mark, as ex-coach Hank Haney would have us believe (and which he claims was a media hallucination, and which we just don’t buy), where’s the motivation?

Sure, there are the four PGA Tour Ws he needs to surpass Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82, which little more than a year ago -- after Woods’ five-win 2013 season -- seemed like a slam dunk.

Of course, it wasn’t that long ago that overtaking Nicklaus in the grand slam steeplechase was a fait accompli as well. Then, before his injury-plagued body really broke down, came the sex scandal.

His Escalade slamming into that fire hydrant and his dirty little secrets gushing out was the real start of Woods’ afflictions -- mental and physical -- claim long-time Woods (psycho?) analysts like Golf Digest’s Jaime Diaz.

“As a golfer, Woods has not been himself since,” Diaz wrote earlier this week, after Woods withdrew from Torrey and before he went online to announce his leave or absence, two-week vacation, or whatever the hell that was.

“I believe it’s fair to posit that the trauma of being publicly shamed changed him,” said Diaz about Woods’ public meltdown. “Before, he possessed the right makeup for a dominating champion. Ever since, he hasn’t.”

For sure, concerns about Woods’ well-being have moved far beyond whether he’ll ever be able to chip again, but such observations about the psyche of the former world No. 1, though incendiary, are not exactly breaking news. Haney and Golf Channel commentator Nick Faldo went all Dr. Phil on Eldrick a couple years ago -- after two colossal losses in the midst of that five-W roll that, granted, did not include a major triumph.

“Whatever he’s been through, with all his personal problems, has made an impact on his mind -- and so much of this sport is all in the mind,” Faldo said in June 2013. “Nerve is the bottom line.”

While Woods is always the talk of any tourney -- whether he’s in contention, on the sidelines, or somewhere in between -- the floodgates of opinion opened and washed over the golf world even before he quit the Farmers on the 12th hole of his opening round. Judgments about his mental state, physical fitness, and mechanical issues are well-documented, but suffice it to say, as Diaz did, that Woods’ game is “teetering more toward retirement than resurgence.”

Now, as the PGA Tour moves on without Woods -- at least for the next two weeks, and possibly forever -- and with Mickelson slated to start at PGA National on February 26, the question looms larger than ever: what can the golf world expect, if anything, from either living legend going forward?

Mickelson, ever the optimist, anticipated a renaissance after an offseason of Woods-like training and gluten-free dining led to an increased swing speed and more distance. What he likely did not count on, despite his never-ending fiddling with his grip, was to flail about so on the greens.

Certainly, he has time to turn things around before the majors -- especially June’s national championship at Chambers Bay. But following those two straight MCs on the heels of the worst season of his professional career, it may be too much to expect Mickelson to work his way out of his quagmire any time soon. Even so, despite essentially calling “uncle” before leaving Torrey, Phil likely has some fight left.

Which is more than we can say for Woods, circa February 2015.

In world-ranking free fall with his game in tatters and paralyzed by stage fright, it’s clear that getting his vaunted “reps” with the whole world watching (a situation that in days of yore would spark a competitive fire in Woods) is not the way to go.

At this point, the only thing for Woods to do is retreat to the safety of his loved ones and lick his wounds. Whether he returns from his sabbatical rested, ready, and able, or never “straps them on” again (as Begay lauded him for doing at Torrey), is anybody’s -- apparently including Woods’ -- guess.

SB Nation presents: Luke Thomas thinks Tiger is done