Phil Mickelson not yet ready to say that Tiger Woods is ‘back’

Slowly but surely, Tiger Woods is rediscovering his stroke. Fortunately for Tiger, he was only in his mid-30s when his life came crashing down around him. In terms of golf, that is very young. His game has been in shambles for the past two years, but Tiger has recently started showing signs of his old self. He came in second at the Honda Classic last weekend after shooting a 62 on Sunday — the best single round of his career. Ernie Els declared that Tiger was “back” after the fantastic finish, but Phil Mickelson is not ready to make that declaration just yet.

“Yeah, obviously he (Els) was paying attention a couple of weeks ago, which is nice to see,” Mickelson said sarcastically when asked about Els’ comments, according to the NY Daily News.

“At least I thought it was funny,” he said after the reporters stopped laughing.

Mickelson was referring to his win at Pebble Beach a little over two weeks ago, when Woods was in the hunt on Sunday but Phil put together an amazing round and shot 11 strokes better than Tiger. That Tiger was the new Tiger — the one that folds under pressure. We saw the old Tiger on Sunday at the Honda Classic, but it might be safer to wait until the new Tiger sticks around for a while before declaring that he’s “back.”

As for why Phil felt the need to take a shot at Tiger, it may be because Woods reportedly stood him up earlier this week when the two were supposed to play a practice round together at Augusta.

“I guess it was the intimidation,” Mickelson joked according to Eye on Golf.

We’re glad Woods stood him up. Tiger and Phil as friends? What fun would that be?

H/T Game On!