It’s often said that sequels are rarely as good as the originals, but a May 24 golf match featuring Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson can’t help but be an upgrade over their previous match.
“Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Charity” will pit Woods and Peyton Manning against Mickelson and Tom Brady in a match-play event at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, with at least $10 million guaranteed in donations for COVID-19 relief. It’s loosely patterned after a Woods-Mickelson pay-per-view match held in Las Vegas in November 2018, though that event was more reminiscent of two aging heavyweights flailing haplessly at one another in the tawdry hopes of collecting an unmerited $9 million prize.
The charitable May 24 “Match” sequel has a far more worthy purpose and the likelihood of more entertaining on-course banter than the original. It also is the next step toward a return to normalcy in golf and other sports.
The PGA Tour plans to get back to work for real June 11 at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas, but until then, we’ll take what we can get. Golf’s comeback began May 17 with TaylorMade Driving Relief, a match between four of the equipment company’s biggest endorsers. It was the first time Tour players had competed in any format since March 12, at the aborted Players Championship. The players, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, and Matt Wolff, carried their own bags and awkwardly exchanged air high-fives in observance of social distancing. But at least we got some live competition and also a chance to see Seminole Golf Club, one of those mystical destinations that every golfer has heard about but few have ever seen.
In “Champions for Charity,” all of the players will be wearing open microphones, which could be entertaining if the pre-round chirping is any indication. In a video interview released by Turner Sports, Manning tweaked Brady, his career-long nemesis, about being kicked out of a Tampa park where he was training during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“The tournament had to be in Florida,” Manning said. “After Tom’s B&E arrest, with the ankle monitor, he couldn’t leave the state. … Tiger and I talked to the sheriff in Tampa. He’s going to be allowed to go to Palm Beach to play.”
Brady joked that he had been studying video of Manning’s golf game, making light of Manning’s legendary preparation habits, and alluded to the “Deflategate” scandal between the Patriots and the post-Manning Indianapolis Colts in the 2014 AFC Championship Game.
“Hopefully, after Phil and I win, they won’t try to change the rules on us or send the tape into the NFL,” Brady said.
Woods and Mickelson will have to do the heavy lifting in the match. Brady and Manning are perfectly capable partners at fundraisers and celebrity golf tournaments, but Medalist, a course designed to challenge the many PGA Tour pros who live in southeast Florida, is a different animal. Brady said he shot 106 there in 2019, and Manning recalled playing a round with Woods from Medalist’s “Tiger Tees” and running out of balls by the time he reached the 18th tee.
Manning noted that he and Brady occasionally have played together at various charity events. “Not a great record, right, Tom?” he said.
“Phil and I can relate to that,” Woods quipped, a reference to their disastrous pairings in U.S. team matches.
At this point, after two months of no live sports, we’ll take what we can get and hope that Turner Sports lets viewers enjoy the afternoon rather than co-opt the coverage.
Turner badly botched the original “Match” in November 2018. Woods and Mickelson also had open microphones throughout that round, but they were drowned out by a cacophony of nine announcers, including Charles Barkley. The first match ended in darkness, with Woods and Mickelson playing a rinky-dink, 93-yard par 3 under the lights for a $9 million payday. Not one of golf’s finest moments.
“This is some crappy golf,” Barkley said midway through that 2018 match. “I know I’m not good, but I could beat these two today.”
Martin Kaufmann has covered sports for more than two decades, including 16 years as senior editor at Golfweek.
