The Match: Tiger vs. Phil was one of the most anticipated contests that the golf world had been eagerly awaiting ever since it was announced. The two rivals had battled through their primes and won over 120 PGA Tour titles combined. But by the time Phil Mickelson & Tiger Woods locked horns for a $9 million prize in November 2018, they were already past their prime. That was just one of the many reasons Capital One’s The Match turned into a dud. And as per Grant Horvat, the entire event was completely set up by Mickelson.

The golf content creator joined the Bible Caddie podcast and talked about how those events were initiated. Speaking about possibly having Woods back on his channel, Horvat told the hosts, “Tiger has done the Captain One matches. Phil’s talked a lot about that. Because Phil set up… That was a lot of Phil initiating everything with those big Capital One Tom Brady and Phil versus Peyton Manning and Tiger, whatever. I remember, they did one at Medalist. Phil’s initiated a lot of that.”

Other than The Match: Tiger vs. Phil, Mickelson also organized the dream team contest called Champions for Charity, looping in the two NFL legends. Tom Brady & himself took on Tiger Woods & Peyton Manning in an 18-hole match at the Medalist Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, in 2020. The first 9 holes were played in a four-ball contest, while the back 9 was played in a modified foursome format. Unlike Tiger vs. Phil, which was riddled with bad coverage and poor setup, Champions for Charity was organized much better and received well by the fans.

In the podcast, Horvat also expressed his interest in creating his own dream video that would also involve Woods & Mickelson. He said, “I would say, my dream collab right now, it would be me & Phil vs. Tiger & Charlie (Woods). I would love to do that 2v2. I don’t know where Tiger’s at. Where his golf game is or if he’s even swinging right now. But I will say that would be a lot of fun. And I think Phil & I starting the 2v2 series, that was kind of our end-all, be-all video.”

Charlie Woods has recently found a lot of success at the junior level. He was also quite comfortable playing with Tiger Woods during the 2024 PNC Championship. Especially after he hit that outstanding ace. Pitting the father-son duo against Grant Horvat & Phil Mickelson would certainly be an exciting contest. It would also be great for Charlie to play with both Tiger & Phil while also competing with Grant. Now that Horvat has put it out there, we will see if the big cat will be interested in making it work in the future.

Coming back to The Match: Tiger vs. Phil, what really went wrong in the Capital One event? Let’s understand why the exhibition match initiated by Phil Mickelson against Tiger Woods was such a failure.

Why did The Match: Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson fail?

The setup was perfect, and the hype was already built exceptionally. Fans were pumped to watch Tiger Woods & Phil Mickelson have a go at each other in a high-profile match to determine who comes out on top. However, right from the get-go, the event was a failure as the broadcast partners didn’t cover the beginning of the match. Fans watching at home missed the first few moments of the contest, despite paying an exclusive pay-per-view price of $19.99. In fact, the paid viewers specifically weren’t able to log in to watch the event, so B/R ended up offering the entire event live for free.

The match itself lacked much drama. Now way past their prime, both Woods & Mickelson failed to showcase exhilarating strokeplay that they were usually known for. There was very little banter between the two rivals as well. For most of the match, the LIV Golf pro was 1UP. They tied on the 11th hole, and for the first time throughout the day, Woods took the lead on the 12th. He gave it up immediately before they ended the 18 holes tied. The contest extended to 4 playoff holes, which was eventually won by Phil Mickelson. But in the end, not many among the fans would say that they really won after watching the snoozefest.