Skip Bayless gives a goodbile-filled presentationof the Caste System party line. Count the number of insults directed at Phil, along with the innumerable genuflecting references to His Tigership:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bayless/0604 10
Mickelson Has More to Prove
By Skip Bayless
Page 2
I was there when Kirk Gibson hit his home run, when Dwight Clark made his catch and when Tom Watson made his chip that beat Jack Nicklaus.
And I'd trade two of the three for this: Tiger vs. Phil in a Masters shootout that goes to a playoff. Just once in my lifetime, I want to see whether Phil Mickelson can stare into the eye of the Tiger and maintain his composure and keep hitting great shots and making great putts and prove once and for all that he's as much guts as gut.
<DIV =inlinephoto>
<DIV =photocred>AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
<DIV =txt style="WIDTH: 275px">Tiger couldn't make a big charge -- so he had to put the green jacket on Mickelson again.
Please, golf gods, just once let us all see whether Phil can beat Tiger on the final hole of a major championship -- preferably The Masters. Even now, that remains unclear.
On Sunday, Mickelson won a second Masters that deserved an asterisk.
* No pressure from Tiger Woods.
Gut feeling: Tiger lost this Masters a little more than Mickelson won it. But, you're right, history will remember only that Mickelson won with a 7-under 281 ... while it soon will be forgotten that Woods was pretty much an also-ran, tying for third at 4 under.
Mickelson's final hole was basically a victory stroll. He chatted and chuckled his way up the 18th, finally making a ha-ha bogey.
* No pressure from Tiger Woods.
As beautifully and maturely as Mickelson played Sunday, he
still hasn't had the opportunity to show he won't turn back into Fearful Phil when the big cat roars. In some majors, Mickelson has run and hidden when Tiger has seized the lead. And twice Tiger has failed to fire as Mickelson has won green jackets.
No, that's not Phil's fault. But in 2004, when Mickelson ended his 0-for-42 drought in majors with his unforgettable three-inch vertical after his Masters-winning putt dropped, Tiger finished tied for 22nd.
And last August at Baltusrol, Tiger outrageously opted to fly home on Sunday night after finishing as the PGA's leader in the clubhouse at 2-under. Five players ahead of him by one or two shots had to finish four or more holes on Monday. Tiger later shrugged it off by saying he didn't think all five would come back to him.
He was right -- and wrong. Mickelson eventually birdied the 18th to win his second major. But you still have to wonder how much the mere sight of Tiger Woods, warming up on the Baltusrol range early Monday morning, anticipating a playoff, would have haunted Mickelson's subconscious.
Deep down, he's still afraid of Tiger. So are the other members of the so-called "Big Five" -- Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els.
It's still the "Big One" until one of the others proves he can take Tiger's best shot and knock him out in the final round. At least Watson and Lee Trevino earned their places in history by beating Nicklaus head-to-head -- eye-to-eye -- in the major-tournament clutch.
But every major still remains Tiger's to lose.
<DIV =inlinephoto>
<DIV =photocred>AP Photo/Rob Carr
<DIV =txt style="WIDTH: 195px">Would Mickelson have made all those putts with Tiger right behind him? Who knows?
Mickelson, who ranked No. 1 in Masters driving distance, clearly has as much talent as Tiger. Maybe more. But does he have Tiger's intestinal fortitude?
Just once, let us find out.
Oh, did it ever appear late Sunday morning, as the third round was completed, that this would be the Masters -- and the major -- we've all been waiting for. After three rounds, Mickelson led by a shot over Fred Couples (who is not afraid of Tiger), two over Tiger and Singh, and three over Goosen. With Els still lurking and Chad Campbell and Rocco Mediate still in the thick of it, this was shaping up as a classic shootout at Hootie's corral.
And Tiger spoiled the party by basically not showing up. The charge Mickelson surely dreaded from two groups ahead never came. What a monumental letdown.
The frustrating irony was that Tiger drove the ball more accurately than he has in two years. No more Tiger "in the" Woods. But for once in his Augusta National lair, his putter bit him.
"If I had just putted normal," he said, or understated, "I would have given Phil a bit of a battle."
Translation:
If I had dropped a couple, I would have wiped that smile off his face.
Was Tiger preoccupied by his father's illness? Only Tiger knows. Was he trying too hard to win one more for Earl? Maybe even Tiger doesn't know for sure.
He said he putted "like a spaz," but that's a highly frustrated overstatement. Early on, his stroke appeared far more solid and confident than it did at last July's U.S. Open, when he couldn't buy a putt. But as he burned one lip after another on Sunday's front side, he began to force the issue -- and Augusta National doesn't take kindly to impatience.
He three-putted No. 11 and No. 17.
But the killer misses came on the par 5s, 13 and 15. Those were for course-rocking eagles. Not one time Sunday was Tiger was able to drop
the putt that detonated a roar and set off Mickelson's sweat glands like Bushwood's sprinkler system.
Not once was Tiger Woods able to do something spectacular. Something that might have sent him into an eagle-birdie frenzy. Something that would have popped Mickelson's helium balloon.
This is what's wrong with the longer and longer, harder and harder back nine at Augusta National: Fewer and fewer players have the length and touch to make the swashbuckling eagles that once made the back nine so wildly winnable and losable. Only one player had highly makeable eagle putts on both par 5s.
Tiger.
He tried to will both of them in. Both were hit too hard and slightly off line. Both paid only lip service to an eagle.
You almost forget that he made two nice comebackers for birdies.
But not one time on the back nine was Mickelson made to feel any real pressure from Woods -- or playing partner Couples. Mickelson isn't afraid of Couples. Couples is a genuinely nice guy who practices sportsmanship, not gamesmanship. Couples doesn't get angry, doesn't make any sharp remarks to opponents and poses no threat to Mickelson's psyche, which still can be as fragile as an azalea.
<DIV =inlinephoto>
<DIV =photocred>AP Photo/Rob Carr
<DIV =txt style="WIDTH: 195px">Playing with Fred Couples only seemed to help Mickelson.
Mickelson went on and on about how much fun it was to play with Couples. Of course, it got more and more fun as Couples missed short putts at 2, 3, 11 and 14 -- the final blunder a three-putt that allowed Mickelson to front-run with a three-shot lead.
Yet the one moment CBS didn't dramatize enough came when Tiger landed a short iron six feet from the front-side flag on 17. One thing about this man: He will not give up. As Tiger began his putting routine, Mickelson pulled the trigger on a six-foot birdie putt on 15.
Within a three-second span, Mickelson made his, then Tiger rammed his past the hole. Then Tiger missed his par putt. If the results had been reversed, Mickelson would have stayed at 6-under as Tiger roared to 5-under.
Then maybe Mickelson would have felt some heat. And in the past, that's when he has tried something go-for-broke foolish -- perhaps to give himself an excuse if he failed.
"I can't help myself sometimes," he used to say. "I'm just a gambler by nature."
But maybe he has outgrown his feline fear. He made his crucial putts; Tiger missed. He shot 69, Tiger 70.
Then again, would he have made his if Tiger had kept making his?
No.
The gut feeling here is that Mickelson came to Augusta trying to remake his image in anticipation of a Sunday shootout with Tiger. It was jarring Sunday to watch the ExxonMobil commercials in which a short-haired, clean-cut Mickelson and his wife, Amy, appeared at a new math and science teaching academy for kids. The Mickelson playing The Masters had let his hair grow outlaw long in the back, with matching long, scraggly sideburns and chin stubble. Born to be wild?
ExxonMobil executives had to be horrified.
Mickelson even wore a black visor and a long-sleeve black rugby-looking shirt on a warm afternoon. Was he ready to show Tiger he can be a mean motor scooter in the clutch?
Unfortunately, Tiger never gave Phil a chance to kick his asterisk.
Skip Bayless can be seen Monday through Friday on "Cold Pizza," ESPN2's morning show, and at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN's "1st & 10." His column appears twice a week on Page 2. You can e-mail Skip here.
<STYLE>
.rightbox {
width: 210px;
float: left;
text-align: right;
margin: 8px 0 0 0;
}
#printdiv a:link{
font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
float: right;
width: 83px;
height: 34px;
margin-right: 6px;
background-image: url("http://espn.go.com/i/story/design05/print_off.gif");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
#printdiv a:visited{
font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
float: right;
width: 83px;
height: 34px;
margin-right: 6px;
background-image: url("http://espn.go.com/i/story/design05/print_off.gif");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
#printdiv a:hover{
background-image: url("http://espn.go.com/i/story/design05/print_over.gif");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
#senddiv a:link{
font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
float: right;
width: 83px;
height: 34px;
margin-right: 6px;
background-image: url("http://espn.go.com/i/story/design05/send_off.gif");
b ackground-repeat: no-repeat;
}
#senddiv a:visited{
font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
float: right;
width: 83px;
height: 34px;
margin-right: 6px;
background-image: url("http://espn.go.com/i/story/design05/send_off.gif");
b ackground-repeat: no-repeat;
}
#senddiv a:hover{
background-image: url("http://espn.go.com/i/story/design05/send_over.gif");
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
</STYLE>
Edited by: Don Wassall 
