‘Whoops’: Woods roasts Mickelson after PGA Tour popularity contest win

As if Phil Mickelson needed any more negative publicity, Tiger Woods ridiculed him on Wednesday night for celebrating too early in the PGA Tour’s inaugural staging of its contentious popularity competition.

While Mickelson claimed in December that he had topped the 2021 Player Impact Program, the Tour revealed that it was actually Woods who picked up the $US8 million (about $11 million) winning bonus despite not playing in an official tournament all year.

After the announcement, Woods retweeted Mickelson’s premature boast which thanked “all the crazies and real supporters too, who helped me win the PIP..” Above it Woods posted “whoops” together with a couple of bafflement emojis.

Kick a man when he is down … Mickelson is on a break from the game after the Saudi Arabia controversy, which cost him the majority of his sponsors. His face must be an even deeper shade of red now.

He can only have assumed that as he was leading the race to generate most fan engagement – having become the oldest winner of a major at last May’s US PGA – in November, he would remain top of the standings for the December 31 cut-off point.

However, that month’s data had yet to be taken into account, and it seems as if Woods’ second-place performance alongside son Charlie in the Tour’s parent and child event two weeks before Christmas took him past his old rival.

Phil Mickelson copped a roasting from Tiger Woods on Twitter.Credit:AP

So Mickelson has to settle for the $US6 million second prize, which is of course far from a pitiful amount and which the 51-year-old might actually find useful after losing at least $US35 million in annual endorsements for a few stunning remarks he insists were made in confidence.

Speaking to an author of a forthcoming unauthorised biography, he called the Saudis “scary motherf—–s” to deal with and admitted he was doing so only to gain leverage over the Tour in his fight to get a bigger slice of the media-rights pie.

Ironically, the PIP was viewed as the Tour’s reaction to the threat of the Saudi Super League.

The PIP is the first time the Tour has handed out bonuses unrelated to on-course displays. It uses an array of metrics: a player’s popularity in Google search and a number of rating measurements judging the minutes he appears on broadcast, the appeal of his “brand,” social-media presence and coverage on more traditional media platforms.

With Rory McIlroy finishing third and scooping $US3.5 million, the top 10 netted huge pay days in the $US40 million bonanza. This year the pot rises to $US50 million.

There are bound to be raised eyebrows at another gigantic Woods payout, not least because he has been inactive since his catastrophic car accident in February last year and the Tour purports to be recognising those who “most positively move the needle”. But the general view on the range is that Woods has generated so much revenue for the Tour and colleagues he deserves every cheque he receives. As well as yet more bragging rights over his rival.

Woods and Mickelson endured a long-standing enmity, but relations have since warmed and some will ponder if the tweet was overly cruel.

McIlroy, who tees it up in the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Thursday, criticised Mickelson’s Saudi stance, but even he called this apparent “cancelling” of a six-time major champion as “unfortunate”.

“But look, Phil will be back,” he said. “I think the players want to see him back. He’s represented the game of golf very, very well for the entirety of his career. We should all be allowed to make mistakes and to ask for forgiveness and move on.”

The Telegraph, London

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