The other rivalry
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Phil Mickelson has 32 career victories, including three major championships -
Vijay Singh has 31 career wins, including three major victories.
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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- The rivalry began simmering a couple of years ago, and while it takes place more in the record books than on fairways and greens, it might be the most compelling on the PGA Tour at the moment.
It doesn't involve Tiger Woods, whose only rivals seem to be retired.
No, this is about the duel going on between Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, who are linked by victories and majors, and lately by losing. At stake is who will be regarded as the second-best player of his generation on the PGA Tour.
Mickelson lost in a sudden-death playoff in the FBR Open to J.B. Holmes, at the time No. 197 in the world. One week later, Singh looked like a lock to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am until a playoff loss to Steve Lowery, who checked in at No. 305 in the world. They rarely let wins slip away.
Mickelson is second among active players with 32 victories, one of them while he was still an amateur at Arizona State. Singh is right behind with 31 victories, the majority after he turned 40, and one more for this Fijian will put him atop the career list of foreign-born players.
Woods has 62 victories and is closer to Sam Snead's record 82 than anyone behind him. Even so, Mickelson and Singh are so far ahead of everyone else that next among active players is Davis Love III, 43, with 19 wins.
Both have won three majors -- Mickelson has two Masters and a PGA, Singh one Masters and two PGAs. Lefty has 21 runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour, while Singh has 24. Singh has won 13 times with Woods in the field, Mickelson has done that 11 times.
The biggest difference in their record is that Singh can look back on his career one day and say he was No. 1 in the world. He reached the top in 2004 when he won nine times and captured the money title for the second season in a row, and was a runaway winner as PGA Tour player of the year.
Mickelson has never been No. 1, and the closest he came to winning a money title was in 1996, Woods' final year as an amateur. He is only 37 and still has time, although his prospects look bleak when Woods is winning 30 percent of the time and probably won't lose his grasp on No. 1 unless he decides to revamp his swing again.
That's OK with Mickelson, who said as much last year at the Masters.
"If I have a great rest of my career and I go out and win 20 more tournaments -- win seven more majors to get to 50 wins and 10 majors -- which would be an awesome career, I still won't get to where he's at today," Mickelson said. "So I don't try to compare myself against him. What I'd like to do is try to win as many tournaments and as many majors that I can. And with him in the field, it just gives it more credibility, whatever it is I am able to accomplish."
Purposely omitted from this discussion is Ernie Els, who doesn't belong to any one tour.
Els also has three majors and reached No. 1 in the world on three occasions in the late 1990s. But he only has 15 victories on the PGA Tour, the product of crisscrossing the globe. No telling how many more times Els would have won in America had he stayed in one place.
With apologies to Ian Poulter, odds are it will be Mickelson who wins best supporting role on the PGA Tour.
What to make of the past two weeks?
Mickelson drew the wrong guy on the wrong course in losing at Phoenix. Holmes hits the ball like a gorilla, and the playoff took place on an 18th hole where Holmes could bash it anywhere and have a flip sand wedge to the green.
Mickelson then missed the cut in defense of his title at Pebble Beach. His swing is fine, and he has few concerns about his progress this early in the year.
Singh raised more questions.
He retooled his swing the latter part of the 2007 season and has reached the point where it feels great on the driving range, but trusting it inside the ropes becomes a chore.
Most believe Singh hit his peak in 2004. Since then, he has changed caddies and split with his longtime trainer. He has gone 23 starts without winning, his longest drought since 2001, the most recent year he failed to win on the PGA Tour.
Phil Mickelson's and Vijay Singh's PGA career statistics as they fight behind Tiger Woods:
Phil MickelsonStatisticVijay Singh
298/366Cuts made/events349/386
32 - 21 - 201st-2nd-3rd-place finishes31 - 24 - 14
132 - 196Top 10-Top 25 finishes158 - 268
3 ('04 & '06 Masters, '05 PGA)Major victories3 ('00 Masters, '98 &'04 PGA)
$46,162,726Career earnings$54,946,716
69.87/22008 scoring average/world golf ranking70.48/10</</td>
First Published February 12, 2008 12:00 am
