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Phil Mickelson Previews Trash Talk vs. Tiger Woods for Capital One's 'The Match'
May 23, 2020
Phil Mickelson aims to make Tiger Woods regret agreeing to stage Capital One's "The Match: Champions for Charity" at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida.
During an interview with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt, Mickelson referenced his head-to-head victory over Woods in the first event in November 2018 and said Woods wanted to move the sequel to his home course to feel more comfortable:
"He was the one that was so insistent that we go to his home course. I beat him in Vegas, and he didn't like that. It still pisses him off, and I understand. ... He was insistent, despite everybody else wanting to go elsewhere, that we go to his home course, to Medalist Club, which is great for Tom [Brady] and I. It gives us an opportunity to give him a memory that he's not going to like every time he shows up at his home course."
Mickelson said he and Woods "clammed up the back nine" in 2018 with a $9 million prize on the line, as they were so focused on the outcome that they stopped chirping at one another. They made five side bets on the front nine and only three on the back nine.
The inclusion of Peyton Manning and Tom Brady should add to the verbal interplay during Sunday's round. Mickelson noted that trash-talking comes much more naturally in football than in golf.
Eli Manning, Peyton's brother and Brady's former NFL rival, got in on the fun Saturday:
Woods is a 15-time major champion and one of the greatest golfers in history. He's not one to get rattled easily.
But Mickelson and Brady will clearly do what they can to throw Woods off his game in this year's edition of Capital One's The Match.