Latest chapter: Phil-Vijay revisited
AKRON, Ohio - Comes the final tee time Saturday, it won't be Britney Spears and Kevin Federline out there. No Heidi Montag and Lauren Conrad, not even Rosie O'Donnell and Most Anyone. But for all of that, it will be another chapter in the Phil and Vijay Show.Fate - if it's paying attention at all - has worked its devious wonders in the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. The final pairing for Saturday's third round, taking the first tee at 2:10 p.m., has Lefty Phil Mickelson paired against Bristling Vijay Singh.
(For the record, Mickelson took the clubhouse lead in the second round Friday with a 66, shooting 66, and Singh came along late in the day and topped him by a stroke with a 66 of his own, for a 134 total.)
Their pairing is the kind of thing people keep track of, as in this will be the third time this year they've been paired together, and the 16th time since 2002, and what prompted such attention is the stuff of soap operas. It was in the 2005 Masters that Singh complained that Mickelson, playing just ahead, was damaging the greens with his over-long spikes and so making putting even chancier. It was said that there was some heat generated when the two came face-to-face in the clubhouse.
Not that there will be any heat on Firestone South Saturday. Surely the traditions of gentlemanly golf will prevail. Will there be the customary “Play well” wish offered back and forth? Friction will not be likely, but astute observers might be able to note some frost. More to the point, if there is any simmering animosity, will it affect the play of either one?
It is an issue that, like a clunker by the organist, can't be ignored. Accordingly, the subject did come up Friday. Not with Mickelson. He'd finished earlier and was the leader when he left the course. It was, however, the final question in Singh's post-round interview, and perhaps it was prudent for the questioner to wait till then.
“You're playing with Phil tomorrow,” the guy said. “Any thoughts on that? There's some water under the bridge there. Do you care? What's the status?”
“Not really,” Singh said, trying to cover all of them. “I mean, I'm going to go out there and play my heart out and try to shoot as low as I can, and not really be concerned about what Phil does. He's going to be focused on his game. I just hope we both have a good day.”
Well, there didn't seem room for any hidden agenda there. That was fundamental civility if ever there was any.
So Singh went his way, contemplating the mystery of the belly putter and whether he could solve it in time to bring home his first victory of the year. As for Mickelson, he had left the media center much earlier, riding off in a cart with TV commentator Ian Baker-Finch, composed and contented. He feels much at home at Firestone, in harmony with the setup of the course.
“We've had great pin placements,” Mickelson offered, and he praised the return to a strategy championed by Tommy Roy, of NBC. “He's always said, make the hard holes harder and the easy holes easier,” Mickelson said. “For a while there, we kind of went against that. Now we're making the hard holes a lot harder, and they're tough pars, and we're making the easy holes - we're keeping them birdie holes. We're not doing something ridiculous with the pins, so guys are able to separate themselves by making birdies on those easy holes as well as making good tough pars on the hard holes.”
Life does seem simpler, the way Mickelson puts it.
Now if only his little chip shots came around, the kind you pop onto the green, he said, because the rest of his short game is pretty dandy.
And this turned the conversation to the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills next week, a course that figures to give everyone plenty of hard holes that are harder, and easy holes that aren't so easy.
“I've always been pretty good with the PGA,” Mickelson said. “I've always enjoyed the way their courses have been set up. It's kind of a mixture between what we have this week at Firestone and a U.S. Open. It's like right in between.”
It was some hours later that Mickelson learned he would be paired with Vijay Singh. It couldn't possibly matter that much to either one, not with the blessings of solitude that golf confers. Mickelson would retire to think of pin placements, and Singh to contemplate his belly putter.
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