Tuesday 8 May 2018 21:16, UK
Phil Mickelson is excited about the prospect of playing alongside Tiger Woods in the opening two rounds of The Players Championship and believes they will bring out the best in each other.
The long-time rivals have not been part of the same pairing at golf's unofficial fifth major since the third round in 2001, but they will be in action together on Thursday and Friday at TPC Sawgrass, with Rickie Fowler completing a top-class threeball.
The star trio tee off at 6:52pm (BST) on Thursday and will headline our main coverage starting at 6pm on Sky Sports The Players, while you can watch them in action from 1:27pm in the second round on Friday as part of our Featured Group coverage.
"I don't know how it's going to play out, but I just know that we seem to be bringing out the best in each other," said Mickelson.
"We've been playing some really good golf lately, and I'm hoping that we have a great week. I think that everybody here wants to see us play well. I think we are playing well.
"It's a good golf course for us to showcase that, and I would love for us to continue this all the way into the weekend, as well.
"I love that we're paired together. I think it's really fun. We wish it would happen more.
"I saw Rickie last night, and we talked about it. I ran into Tiger on Sunday after we had heard about it, and I think we're all excited about it."
Mickelson also raised the prospect of having a special one-round showdown with Woods at some point in the future and he believes there would be plenty of interest in it, as indicated by their practice round together at the Masters.
The duo attracted vast early-morning galleries when they teamed up to play against Fred Couples and Thomas Pieters over the inward nine holes on the Tuesday at Augusta National.
Mickelson added: "We haven't been paired together in years, and as I look at the cover of the newspaper and the pairing is on there and the excitement that's been going on around here, it gets me thinking, why don't we just bypass all the ancillary stuff of a tournament and just go head to head and just have kind of a high-stake, winner-take-all match?
"Now, I don't know if he wants a piece of me, but I just think it would be something that would be really fun for us to do, and I think there would be a lot of interest in it if we just went straight to the final round."
And Woods appears ready to accept the challenge, later saying at his press conference: "I'm definitely not against that. We'll play for whatever makes him uncomfortable."
Mickelson, who is making his 25th Players Championship appearance, claimed a two-stroke victory in 2007 - the first time the tournament was held in May - so he is chasing 'bookend' wins in the last one held in May before it moves back to March.
"I love this tournament. I'm excited to be back. It's a real challenge for me," he said.
"I look at this course, I just can't believe I've actually won here. It's a really difficult course that's punishing. It's been fun to be a part of the past champions here, because it really takes some special golf to win out here.
"Moving back to March I think is going to be a great thing for the tournament. I think that it was great to move it to May. I don't think it really matters when the event is played. We're going to get the best players in the world playing, and I think that's all that matters."
Fowler is making his ninth appearance in The Players Championship and hopes playing alongside Mickelson and Woods will inspire him to claim a second victory in the tournament following his triumph in 2015.
The Masters runner-up said: "Phil and I have played a lot of rounds together, and Tiger and I have played a little bit at home, we've played a few practice rounds together out here.
"It'll be a good time. It's going to be a little hectic out there. There's going to be quite a few people. And the crowds, I think you notice them a little bit more around this golf course because of how close together everything is.
"I'm looking forward to it. May try and putt out as much as I can before Tiger does just so that I'm not hitting while the circus is moving on.
"But it's going to be fun. Hopefully the three of us can kind of get things going and feed off each other and get ourselves in a great position for the weekend.
"Tiger and Phil are still two of the biggest names in our sport, so they deserve to be talked about. But we'll see if I can go ahead and get some mentions in there and maybe make myself talked about by week's end."
