Tiger & Phil: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry

by Bob Harig

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The real pull here is that Tiger and Lefty are the two most fascinating figures in golf; the rivalry aspect to their relationship is just a fun way to talk about them. The author, Bob Harig, is the senior golf writer for ESPN, and he has interviewed these two players many times over their careers, so he's got the scoop!

Bob Harig's Tiger & Phil provides an in-depth chronicle of the decades-long rivalry that drove the success of golf's two biggest stars, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

For more than two decades, there have been two golfers who have captivated, bemused, inspired, frustrated, fascinated, and entertained us, and in doing so have demanded our attention – Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Even with all the ink that has been spilled on Tiger, no one has ever written about his relationship with Phil and how their careers have been inextricably intertwined. Furthermore, very little has been written about Phil Mickelson, who is more than just an adversary. He is a fascinating Hall of Fame golfer in his own right.

These two biggest names (and draws) in golf have, for better and for worse, been the ultimate rivals. But it is so much more complicated than that. Each player has pushed the other to be better. They have teased each other and fought. They have battled to the bitter end on the course making for some of the greatest moments in the game for the last 20 years. They have each gone through injury and health problems, legal problems, falling in and out of favor with the press. And over the course of their time together in the game they have gradually become not just rivals but friends.

In the tradition of major bestsellers such as Arnie & Jack, When the Game Was Ours, The Rivals, and Brady vs. Manning, Tiger & Phil will change the way we look at these players and the game itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250274465
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/26/2022
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	9,949
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

SI.com golf writer BOB HARIG, a longtime writer for ESPN and the Tampa Bay Times, has covered Tiger and Phil since the very beginning of each of their careers and has had dozens of one-on-one interviews with each of them. He holds degrees in journalism and history from Indiana University and is an active member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA). He lives in Florida.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Oakland Hills 13

2 SoCal 31

3 Amateurs 47

4 Turning Pro 67

5 Hello, World 79

6 The Masters 97

7 Pinehurst 108

8 Tiger Slam 124

9 Tension 143

10 Finally 158

11 Doral 175

12 Winged Foot 185

13 Torrey Pines 205

14 The Ryder Cup 226

15 Trouble 242

16 The Coach and the Caddie 257

17 Double or Nothing 275

18 Muirfield 294

19 Fifteen 301

20 Kiawah 318

21 A Fascinating Rivalry 330

Acknowledgments 345

Index 349

Editorial Reviews

2022-01-11
Recounting a 25-year duel on the links.

“While there was respect, at times there was also pettiness and standoffishness,” writes ESPN.com senior golf writer Harig, describing the rivalry between these two great golfers in this insightful tale of the tape. He sets the stage with the 2004 Ryder Cup, when Hal Sutton, U.S. captain, surprisingly paired Woods and Mickelson together in two matches. They had never played together before. Their uneasy relationship was being put to the test, and they failed miserably, losing both. Harig chronicles in detail each player’s early rise to stardom. He notes that they were both brash and good at golf ever since they were young, with Mickelson, five years older, having an edge over Woods in terms of experience. The author reveals them as two very different kinds of players. Woods was a taciturn, tactical technician, Mickelson the imaginative, gambling prankster. Woods always took his game superseriously, Mickelson less so. Both accomplished impressive feats early in their careers, but Woods won his first appearance at the Masters as Mickelson missed the cut. “By that weekend in 1997, Phil knew what he was up against,” writes Harig. “As great as he was, Tiger was proving to be every bit the star and more.” In golf, head-to-head matchups are infrequent, so the author mostly covers this rivalry from afar. There was the much-hyped, made-for-TV “The Match” in 2018, which Mickelson won. Harig admits there was friction in their rivalry, but it has been “a glorious ride through more than two decades of highs and lows.” In the end, despite Mickelson’s outstanding career, the author declares Woods the winner of this rivalry, an opinion that will surprise few observers of the game. Though a touch overlong and sometimes dry, the narrative is enlivened with interesting quotes from players and caddies, much golf lore, and up-close descriptions of tournaments and the players’ games in action.

Insider portraits tailor-made for golf enthusiasts.

Kirkus Reviews

"Tiger & Phil is the wonderful story of two men who will long be remembered for their contributions to professional golf" —Book Reporter

“The only thing I enjoyed more than broadcasting the Tiger-Phil rivalry for over twenty years was reading all the juicy tidbits from behind the scenes by the amazing Bob Harig. Every golf enthusiast will want to dive into this.” —Jim Nantz, CBS-TV

"Bob Harig was born to write this brilliant and definitive historical document on the Tiger-Phil rivalry. After walking step for step with these two titans for decades, Harig delivers fascinating, previously-untold stories about the battles that defined them. This is the ultimate insider's look at the real Tiger-Phil relationship, and at the high-stakes pursuit of golf immortality." —Ian O'Connor, three-time New York Times bestselling author of Arnie & Jack

“In many ways golf has never had a rivalry to match Tiger and Phil’s. Tiger was a perfectionist and an icy star much like Ted Williams, and he always had that hard cold stare of high purpose. Phil was golf’s version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, creating awe from error, and he always had that paw-in-the-cookie-jar smile. They weren’t so much oil and water as they were thesis and antithesis. Bob Harig writes a book we all want to read as much as we all wanted to watch them play.’’ —Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel analyst, former PGA Tour player and author of Anatomy of Greatness: Lessons From the Best Golf Swings in History

"Tiger vs. Phil is the most delicious rivalry in sports, and Harig has been there for all of it. There's so much good stuff in here, somebody should make a movie." —Rick Reilly, former Sports Illustrated and ESPN writer and author of So Help Me Golf and Who’s Your Caddy?

"There is no one more qualified to write a book on Tiger and Phil than Bob Harig. He's probably walked more holes with them than anyone—with the POSSIBLE exception of their caddies—and been around for every important moment in their careers—both with one another and separately." —John Feinstein, author of A Good Walk Spoiled, The Majors, and Raise a Fist, Take a Knee

From the Publisher