Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson draw young guns for Memorial opener

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, officially the old men on the PGA Tour, will have several opportunities over the first two days of this week’s Memorial Tournament to show some members of the next generation that they still got game.

If they got game to show, that is.

Woods enters Jack Nicklaus’ tourney after a three-week break just as enigmatic a player as he was in his injury-riddled 2014 season. He will tee it up with Patrick Reed, who will be dressed in his Sunday best, and Jason Day on Thursday.

Mickelson began the season almost as poorly as Woods did, but comes to Ohio with two strong finishes sandwiched around a missed cut at The Players. He draws no-longer “overrated” Rickie Fowler and defending champion Hideki Matsuyama in his opening sessions at Muirfield Village.

A five-time winner of the Memorial, Woods last hit pay dirt at Muirfield Village in 2012. He inexplicably carded a third-round 79 and finished T65 there in his five-win 2013 season, and was an injury-related DNP last year. In the interim, he has stumbled along the timeline of his short-game struggles that led to an 82 and a MC in Phoenix, an early withdrawal at Torrey Pines and a two-month layoff to fix his wedges.

Since then, Woods looked relatively sharp for three days at Augusta before Sunday’s driving misadventures and a tweaked wrist left him at T17.

A clutch putt on Friday’s final hole got him to the weekend at The Players but a third-round 75 derailed any chance for advancement and he finished T65.

So here we are, with Woods, 39, anchoring the 172nd spot in the world rankings, his lowest post as a professional since he won his first event as a rookie in 1996. There was a time when Tiger would show up at one of his favorite venues — like Torrey or Bay Hill, each of which has yielded eight Ws to the former world No. 1 — but those days are long gone.

Yes, he’s seeking his sixth victory at Jack’s place but he hasn’t lifted a trophy since the WGC-Bridgestone in August 2013. Off the circuit for three weeks since the Masters, Tiger needs a strong performance at the Memorial, his last competition before the U.S. Open in two weeks.

It’s an important tourney for Mickelson as well, though Lefty has shown flashes of his old self of late and has this week’s event as well as next week’s FedEx St. Jude Classic to tune up for his run at completing the career grand slam. Despite the MC at The Players, the T2 at the Masters and T4 at the Wells Fargo Championship proved what he had been saying for some time — that he was not playing as badly as his scores indicated.

“I felt like I’ve been playing well,” Mickelson said after posting a 6-under in the second round at Quail Hollow. “It’s nice to finally shoot that 66 and get the score that reflects the way I feel I’m playing.”

Mickelson, 44, may have put his inconsistent play of recent years behind him, and Woods may come roaring out of the gate with his long and short games clicking. And maybe their “A” games will be enough to keep the young cubs at bay.

But probably not if 21-year-old Jordan Spieth, grouped with Justin Rose and Bill Haas and looking to become the first three-time PGA Tour winner in 2015, plays the way he did on his way to the Masters win. Or if Dustin Johnson, who will turn 31 this month and takes on grizzled vets Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker in the opening rounds, can build on the four birdies and 13 pars he made on Sunday at the AT&T Byron Nelson and avoid any more snowmen.

Fowler, at 26, has teamed with Mickelson to pick the pockets of their peers in pre-tourney practice rounds so he’s familiar with the game of his mentor. Yes, he suffered a bit of a collapse with 8s on consecutive holes at the Irish Open. But if he continues the overall strong play that led to his Players victory he could be the last man standing come Sunday.

Day remains something of a mystery, with four top-five finishes this year, including a win at the Farmers Insurance Open. The 27-year-old Aussie withdrew from last week’s event with severe dizziness and he’s been dogged by a series of injuries over the last couple of years, so his Memorial stint could get interesting.

Matsuyama, 23, outlasted Kevin Na in a playoff last year and has five top-10s this season, including a fifth-place outcome at Augusta. Reed, 24, prevailed over Jimmy Walker in a playoff at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, was T7 at the Honda Classic, and lost the Valspar Championship to Spieth in another playoff in March. Since then, though, the brash 25-year-old has not made much noise inside the ropes.

Here are some of the marquee groups to watch for at the Memorial:

Woods, Day, Reed — Thursday, No. 10, 8:15 a.m. ET/Friday, No. 1, 1:05 p.m.
Spieth, Rose, Haas — No. 1, 8:26 a.m./No. 1, 1:16 p.m.
D. Johnson, Kuchar, Stricker — No. 1, 1:05 p.m./No. 10, 8:15 a.m.
Mickelson, Fowler, Matsuyama — No. 1, 1:16 p.m./No. 10, 8:26 a.m.

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