Phil Mickelson predicts Tiger Woods will win ‘to one-up me again’

Phil Mickelson has often credited Tiger Woods, when the former world No. 1 was in his heyday, with inspiring him to play his best golf. Now, after Lefty’s first win since 2013, last week in Mexico, the tables have turned.

“He’s always one-upped me in my career,” Lefty told Dan Patrick Thursday as Tiger prepared to tee off in the first round of the Valspar Championship. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he came out this week and won just to one-up me again.”

Woods was similarly effusive, a day earlier, in praising Mickelson for his “great” victory last week at the WGC-Mexico Championship.

”I thought it was great,’’ Woods, after his Wednesday pro-am at Innisbrook, told reporters about Mickelson ending his nearly five-year victory drought with a playoff win over Justin Thomas. “He’s been playing well. I mean he played well at the end of last year and got off a great start this year.

“He’s been in contention a few times,” added Woods, who also posted his last W in 2013. “What he did on Sunday was very, very cool to watch. It was solid, consistent.”

What is now clearly a mutual admiration society, bolstered by the relationship the aging superstars have forged during team events over the years, was not always thus. Indeed, conventional wisdom has it that Woods and Mickelson for years had, at best, a frosty affiliation.

The bad blood between golf’s most popular twosome is a thing of the past and it’s a delight to watch Tiger and Phil interact when together on the same squad as player and assistant captain, or even just with their words.

“We’ve gotten pretty close over the last couple of years with the team events and his great leadership that he’s had as a vice captain of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup,” Mickelson told Patrick. “We’ve been pulling hard for each other.

“We both know and believe that we have the ability to play and compete against these great players,” said Mickelson, who reiterated that he “would not have played as well as I have throughout my career had it not been for him, nor would I have elongated my career to this point … had it not been for him.”

Mickelson, not exactly the first athlete that leaps to mind when considering shredded gym rats like Tiger and Rory McIlroy, also credited Woods with getting him in shape.

“He’s the one that got me started working out back in 2003 and, granted a lot of my fitness is hidden under layers of fat,” Mickelson said as Patrick laughed at Phil’s self-deprecation, “but I’ve worked hard to strengthen all the muscles that support my spine, my knees, my shoulders, to help elongate my career.”

For Woods, who was apparently as glued to his TV on Sunday as the rest of us, Mickelson’s 43rd PGA Tour win, at the advanced age of 47, was an inspiration to the 42-year-old who is playing his fourth tour event after returning from last April’s spinal fusion surgery.

“What Phil is showing us is that we can still do it later on in our careers,” said Woods. “Davis [Love III] did it at 51, I believe. Phil is 47. I think Kenny Perry won a handful of events close to 45, 46. So, you know, there are a few guys that can do it late in their career.”

Tiger no longer mouths the party line that he’s in every tournament to win. But for sure, he counts himself among those few ”Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance” guys who can still get it done, despite the elite talent of Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, and his peers.

“Seeing Phil win, I think was really cool for Tiger to recognize, ‘Okay, I’ve got all this time to be able to still get to that high level,’” said Spieth, Woods’ playing partner for the first two rounds at Innisbrook.

“I haven’t talked to him about that, but I imagine that’s got to be pretty interesting for him to see, and it helps put things in perspective in how much time he still really does have for the top level,” Spieth observed. “And knowing the nature he’s displayed over the last 20 years, it still wouldn’t be surprising if come Masters time he’s in the hunt on Sunday. That’s pretty amazing to say.

Indeed it is, especially since Woods’ last of his 79 tour wins, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, came two weeks after Mickelson won his last before Sunday, the 2013 British Open.

And while Tiger, no doubt privately, believes he can use his veteran wiles to capture more Ws, he recognizes how incredible it is for him, after four back procedures, just to be out there competing with the youngsters and a certain southpaw. His Valspar debut comes after a T23 at Torrey Pines, a missed cut at Riviera, and a 12th-place finish two weeks ago at the Honda Classic.

”For me, I’m ecstatic to have a chance to play again and have a chance to win golf tournaments and compete,” said Woods, who began his Valspar stint with a birdie on the first hole. “There’s a while there where I didn’t look like I was ever going to be out here again, not in the capacity of a professional player. But here I am playing again and it’s a lot of fun.”

Tiger finished Thursday inside the top 10 and is making a major move on Friday toward the very top of the leaderboard. So Phil’s expectation of a “one-up” is well within sight.