Mickelson expects Tiger to contend

Three-time Masters champ predicts returning Woods will shine at Augusta

Phil Mickelson has laughed off suggestions that his old foe Tiger Woods’ off-course misdemeanours will make him less of a threat at this week’s Masters.

Woods is making his first appearance in a professional golf event since he was engulfed by a sex scandal late last year but, despite his off-course troubles, Mickelson, a three-time winner at Augusta, still expects his fellow American and rival to be as fierce a contender as ever.

Asked if Woods can win a fifth Green Jacket this week, Mickelson replied: “Well, that’s a crazy question to ask. He showed that he can win in much worse condition in the 2008 US Open.

“I played with him the first couple of rounds and he was not physically at his best obviously and his game was not the sharpest and yet he still wins. He finds a way to get it done.

“I don’t believe he has any physical ailments right now and I expect his game to be sharp. I mean, this is a golf course he’s won on four times and loves as much as I do and plays it as well as anybody ever has in the history of the game. So this is a place that I think a lot of people know that he can win on, and it’s going to take a good performance to beat him.”

Woods, whose last pro event was the Australian Masters – which he won – last November, spoke to the press earlier this week for the first time since revelations about his infidelities surfaced and he took the opportunity to apologise to his fellow tour pros for the impact that the toll that the scandal had taken on them.

Responding to this, however, Mickelson said: “He doesn’t owe me an apology. I mean, in the last 12 years, he’s done so much for the game of golf. I don’t know if there’s been an individual who has capitalized more on the opportunities that he’s brought to the game of golf than myself. He doesn’t owe me a thing.”

Of his own chances on his 18 trip to Augusta this week, the left-hander said: “I would have liked to have had better performances in tournaments, especially on the West Coast, heading into Augusta. My performance has not been what I wanted.

“But there are have been times where I have performed well here in the past where I’ve had a poor performance missing the week before.

“There’s something that relaxes me about this golf course because I don’t feel like I have to be perfect. I don’t feel like I have to strike it great. As long as I can control my misses and put it where I can get up-and-down, I can let my short game save me strokes here and there.”

Bryce Ritchie is the Editor of bunkered and, in addition to leading on content and strategy, oversees all aspects of the brand. The first full-time journalist employed by bunkered, he joined the company in 2001 and has been editor since 2009. A member of Balfron Golfing Society, he currently plays off nine and once got a lesson from Justin Thomas’ dad.

Editor of bunkered