Rory McIlroy Trashes Much-Hyped Tiger vs. Phil Match - 'It's Missed the Mark'
Not everyone is looking forward to “The Match” between golf legends Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson next week, including several of their peers.
One of them is future hall of famer Rory McIlroy, who said he’s not planning on watching the winner-take-all $9 million, pay-per-view exhibition on Nov. 23 at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.
McIlroy said its a few years too late.
“Look, if they had done it 15 years ago it would have been great,” McIlroy said Tuesday at the DP World Championships in Dubai, reported Golf Magazine. “But nowadays, it’s missed the mark a little bit.”
At a FedEx Cup Playoffs event earlier this year, McIlroy told Mickelson he was on the fence about watching, so Mickelson offered to pay the fee to watch.
We’re just over a week away from The Match between Tiger and Phil, but how did this battle actually come to be?
A hypothetical question from Hollywood. https://t.co/NW9RoU7148 #golf #pgatour
— Brett Blakemore (@ShortGameGuru1) November 15, 2018
“[Mickelson] took $25 out of his pocket and said, ‘No, here’s $25. I’ll pay for it for you. Thank you,’” McIlroy said, according to Golf.com.
But now McIlroy is a hard “no” when it comes to watching the event.
He’s not the only one. Justin Thomas tweeted last month that he wouldn’t be watching either.
“Love TW and Phil to death…. but there’s a 0% chance I order that. I’ll be watching football!” Thomas wrote.
Other PGA stars, including Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, and Brooks Koepka, said they weren’t likely to plunk down the $19.99 to watch the two legends go head-to-head, according to MSN.
One golfer who will be watching is Jordan Spieth.
Count Jordan Spieth among those excited to watch Tiger-Phil match – https://t.co/3GDMUDpfcb
Jordan Spieth will tee it up in consecutive weeks, beginning Thursday at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. He will also play in next week’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba. After t…
— Bri Shan (@brishanusa) October 31, 2018
“I’m sure that myself and our friends will be watching it,” Spieth said at press conference before the recent Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. “There is certainly an interest from us, yeah, especially knowing the both of them. Having them mic’d up and knowing them personally it’ll be kind of extra special.”
While what McIlroy says is true — it would have been great 15 years ago when both were in their prime — the fact is, Woods and Mickelson are still the biggest draws in golf, even though they are out of their prime.
There’s also the fact that Woods seems to have shaken off the lingering effects of his latest back surgery and finished this past season on a roll, winning the season’s final event at the PGA Tour Championship in Atlanta and vaulting back to the No. 13 spot in the World Golf Rankings.
Mickelson, meanwhile, got off to a strong start early in the season and even picked up his first Tour victory in nearly five years. But the second half of his season was a mess. He was heavily criticized for hitting a putt before it stopped rolling in a brutal performance at the U.S. Open, missed the cut at the PGA Championship and went winless in his Ryder Cup matches.
The event would seem to be must-see TV for most golf fans, considering that television ratings usually spike for tournaments when either Mickelson or Woods are in the mix on the weekends.
Of course, those matches are free to watch. We’ll see what kind of draw they are when people have to shell out $20.
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