Tiger and Lefty together again?
Woods (-7) Tied For Third After Second
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The buzz still lingers, even if it needed a few weeks to float east from Augusta National to Quail Hollow.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have yet to be paired together as they were on Masters Sunday, and probably haven't even laid eyes on each other while playing at opposite ends of the draw through the first two days of the Quail Hollow Championship.
But if things go just right, they are headed for another showdown, and this time it could be for the tournament title rather than simply a juicy subplot to the weekend's action.
A day after both players lit up Quail Hollow with a slew of birdies, the world's No. 1 and No. 2 players settled down Friday, each with his share of misadventures.
Quail Hollow Championship Leaderboard
T-1. Watson (-8)
T-1. Goosen (-8)
T-3. Woods (-7)
T-3. Furyk (-7)
T-3. Johnson (-7)
T-3. McNeill (-7)
• Complete scores
The final result saw Woods drop a shot out of the lead -- behind another lefty, Bubba Watson, and Retief Goosen -- while Mickelson settled for a tie for seventh, just two shots back and only one behind Woods.
"It was up and down, more exciting than I would have liked it to be," Mickelson said. "I had a couple of mistakes and didn't take advantage of the birdie holes. But I'll take 1-under. I feel like I'm in it for the weekend, and I feel like I've been playing well. So I'm looking forward to it."
Mickelson's 1-under-par 71 put him at 138, 6 under par. Woods, who holed a 60-foot bomb for a birdie at the ninth hole, couldn't close out his round, making bogeys on two of the last three holes to shoot 72 and finish at 137, 7 under par.
Watson, a frequent practice-round partner of Woods, accomplished Friday what the world's No. 1 did Thursday -- he shot 65 with a front-nine 30.
Woods couldn't produce the same kind of magic. He admitted that his putt at the ninth "would have been in the grandstand if it didn't hit the hole. It was nice to have a train wreck and have it go in." He hit just four of 14 fairways and only eight of 18 greens.
"I didn't drive the ball particularly well today, didn't hit my irons as well as I'd like," he said. "I was hanging in there. If I could have posted 9 [under, instead of 7-under], I would have probably gotten the most out of that round I could have possibly. It just didn't work out that way, especially coming in. But overall it's not that bad, considering the way I was hitting the golf ball today."
All of this comes at the first tournament for Woods and Mickelson since they were paired together during the final round of the Masters, where they began an hour before the leaders, seven shots back, and managed to tingle spines and rattle pines for some three hours.
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Mickelson shot a front-nine record-tying 30; Woods eagled the eighth hole. They headed to the back nine in charge mode, and the galleries were in full throat, loving it. Even when Mickelson rinsed his tee shot at the par-3 12th, it wasn't over, as he birdied both of the back-nine par-5s, missing an eagle putt at the 15th.
When Woods birdied the 16th, they were just a shot behind the leaders, but the dream finish ended when neither of the top guns could. Woods bogeyed the final two holes to shoot 68, while Mickelson finished with a 67. Woods was four out of a playoff, Mickelson three.
Woods talked about his "Band-Aid" swing afterward and was undoubtedly perturbed about being unable to "post a number" that would cause the leaders to blink. Mickelson, meanwhile, was almost giddy about putting up such a good fight, despite falling short.
"The most fun I've ever had in a tournament," said Jim "Bones" Mackay, Mickelson's longtime caddie. "He played so well for so long that even after a couple of mistakes on the back nine we had an outside chance to come from seven back to win."
Now they're both at Quail Hollow, and while this is not a major championship, it has become one of the top events on the PGA Tour. Eight of the top 10 players in the world entered, and to a man, they rave about the course.
This year, things were set up a bit differently at Quail Hollow, where they slashed the rough to the point that it almost doesn't matter whether players hit the fairway or not.
"I think it's a good enough golf course; it doesn't matter," said Jim Furyk, who won here in 2006 and currently is tied for third, a shot back. "[But] we know a couple of them are going to be in here and be raving about how great the setup is, and one of them is left-handed."
Yep, Phil loves it.
"I think that the recovery shot is brought into play here," Mickelson said. "I think people are enjoying seeing some recovery shots. I think the short game around the greens is coming out. You have to hit some great shots to get it close, but you always have a chance. We're not having that hack-and-hope out of long hay we see often, but this is one of the best setups I've seen."
Of course, Mickelson hit just five of 14 fairways Friday, none in his final nine holes. Starting on the back nine, Mickelson got to 7 under par with birdies at the 14th and 15th holes, then four-putted the 17th green when he left a 42-foot birdie putt 6 feet short, then ran the next one 6 feet by and missed coming back.
"There are some pins that are very challenging, and it can happen," he said. "The rough isn't up … but with the greens being firm and the pins on slopes, it's not an easy course to shoot low."
Indeed, there were several examples of misadventure. Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, got to 10 under par through 15 holes, then bogeyed each of the last three to finish at 7-under and tied for third with Woods, Furyk and George McNeill. Davis Love III and Anthony Kim, each playing with Mickelson, bogeyed the 18th to drop a shot behind Lefty. Robert Karlsson came to the 18th at 7 under, then made a double bogey.
There were seven players who held at least a share of the lead Friday, and it promises to be just as interesting over the weekend if the firm conditions remain, especially considering 16 players are within three shots of the lead.
And with two of them named Tiger and Phil, anything is possible.
Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.
