Nothing Inferior About Last Group

It was meant as a joke, an offhand comment by a noted trash talker, but when Phil Mickelson criticized the equipment used by Tiger Woods, he drew a line in the sand. Today, Woods steps across to see if Mickelson will flinch.

Woods and Mickelson, ranked No. 1 and No. 3 in the world, will go head to head for the Buick Invitational championship as they play together today in the final group. Woods birdied the first two holes Saturday at Torrey Pines Golf Course en route to a four-under-par 68 in the third round and is the leader with a total of 12-under 204. Mickelson made birdies at Nos. 2, 3 and 4, shot 69 and is at 10 under.

Sandwiched in between is Brad Faxon, who led by three strokes when he made the turn but shot 37 on the South Course back nine and finished with a 71. He is at 11 under but figures to be lost in what is otherwise a dream pairing for the final day.

“Dream pairing?” Faxon said. “I might have to be the judge.”

It’s no secret that Woods and Mickelson are not the best of friends, but the relationship became strained last week when Mickelson joked in Golf magazine that Woods “hates that I can fly it past him now. He has a faster swing speed than I do, but he has inferior equipment. Tiger is the only player good enough to overcome the equipment that he’s stuck with.”

The comment caused quite a stir and resulted in a quick rebuttal by Nike, Woods’ equipment manufacturer, in a television commercial.

Last year in Golf Digest, Mark Calcavecchia made the awkwardness between the two public. Today, they will meet in the final round for the first time since the 2001 Masters, when Woods shot 68 to Mickelson’s 70 and won his second green jacket.

“It is ironic,” Woods said before downplaying his chance to shove a Nike driver in Mickelson’s face. “But I can’t just worry about Phil. Brad’s [right there]. There are a lot of guys right behind us, so if we don’t go out there and play well, we will get passed. We have to take care of our own business. But it’s going to be exciting to be in that final group again.”

Sure, some players are close. Steven Alker, who finished fourth on the Nationwide (formerly Buy.com) Tour money list last year, is tied with Mickelson at 10 under. Fred Couples heads a group of five players at nine under and Dennis Paulson is eight under.

But it’s clear that the battle between Woods and Mickelson, no matter what happens, will take center stage.

“I’m going to watch both of them,” said Faxon, who will have the best seat in the house. “I’ll definitely be the third guy out there. There’s going to be some screaming, some yelling for both guys. I think Phil’s going to have a bit more of a home crowd and everyone wants to see Tiger because he hasn’t played at all this year.”

Woods, making his 2003 season debut after rehabilitating his surgically repaired left knee, has held or shared the 54-hole lead in 28 PGA Tour tournaments during his career and won 26 of them. The last player to overcome a third-round deficit against Woods was Mickelson in the 2000 Tour Championship. Mickelson trailed Woods by one, shot 66 and won by two.

Earlier that year at Torrey Pines, Mickelson ended a six-tournament win streak by Woods when he birdied four of his last six holes after Woods had tied for the lead. Mickelson can’t wait to tee it up today.

“I realize that I’m in the last group and it will be a challenge to overcome, but I wanted that challenge,” Mickelson said. “I thought it would be fun to play with Tiger. I wanted to have the opportunity to play with Tiger. If you ever watch him or compete against him when he’s in the final group and playing pretty good, he’s very impressive. I enjoy that challenge to try to keep up and catch him.”

Mickelson, in fact, thought about that as he stood over a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. If he missed, he would have remained at nine under and Alker would have taken his place in the final group.

“I was thinking over that putt on 18 I would love to get into that final group, absolutely,” Mickelson said.

Faxon had the opposite thought. Facing the prospect of being in the middle of the Woods-Mickelson circus, Faxon assessed the situation as he approached the 18th tee.

“I saw the leaderboard and I said, ‘You know, this could be interesting if I make par,’ ” Faxon. “If I made bogey coming in, I knew I wouldn’t be in the last group. I was going, ‘Is this what you want to do?’ ”

Woods seemed to iron out the driver problems that plagued him through the early rounds. After hitting only nine of 28 fairways through the first two rounds, he hit nine of 14 in the third. Even when he missed, he managed to scramble well.

The shot of the day came after he hooked a tee shot into a left fairway bunker on the par-five sixth hole. He hit a three-wood from 270 yards out and the ball came to rest 18 feet left of the pin. He two-putted for birdie. On the back nine, Woods hit only four greens in regulation but still shot two-under 34. He one-putted six of the last eight holes.

“I’ve always said that making a big par putt feels better than making a birdie,” Woods said. “You never want to lose a shot and I knew I needed to make those to stay on top of the leaderboard.”

Woods is not surprised that he and Mickelson, both of whom grew up in Southern California, are contending at Torrey Pines.

“If you were to pick two guys to play well on this course, I think you would probably pick us two,” he said.

And while both say the brouhaha between them has been overplayed in the media, the only equipment that matters today is that between the ears of the No. 1 and No. 3 players in the world.

“It’s going to be mayhem out there,” Faxon said.

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Leaderboard

*--* Third-round scores from the $4.5-million Buick Invitational, played on the par-72 Torrey Pines South (7,568 yards) course: 1st 2nd 3rd Total Score Tiger Woods 70 66 68 204 12 under Brad Faxon 70 64 71 205 11 under Phil Mickelson 69 68 69 206 10 under Steven Alker 69 67 70 206 10 under

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