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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have been their generation's best players and the game's biggest names for 20 years.
Although a rivalry in the truest sense of the word never materialized since they started to rule over the game in the 1990s — Woods has won 79 PGA Tour titles to Mickelson's 42, 14 majors to Mickelson's 5, and $110 million in prize money to Mickelson's $75 million — they've been joined at the hip as much as any twosome in golf.
Now both are on a quest to find past glory. And both remain confident that any golf obit starting out with their names would be premature.
But there's plenty of ammunition to argue otherwise.
Neither has won since 2013. Rarely have the two contended once the calendar turned to 2014, although Mickelson has been runner-up in the past two majors. There have been far more missed cuts and withdrawals than top-10s.
Earlier this year when both missed the cut in the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Woods chipped like a beginner and Mickelson ended his short week playing miserably in the rain.
The following week in the Farmers Insurance Open, where the two have won a combined 10 times, Woods withdrew after 11 holes with a tight back while Mickelson, playing in his hometown of San Diego, didn't break par in two days, made just five birdies and missed the cut.
The two are, some believe, on their last legs, both limping into the sunset of their careers. They look especially old these days among the scores of fresh legs of so many young guns who are firmly entrenched on the Tour, all fearless and free of scar tissue from beatings from Woods.
At 39, the saying goes, Woods is an old man, the wear and tear of multiple surgeries and living in an unrelenting spotlight having gotten the best of his body and drive. Mickelson, at 44, is battling psoriatic arthritis and a dwindling attention span inside the ropes.
This week in The Players Championship, the PGA Tour's flagship event on the Tour's grandest stage — Pete Dye's masterpiece that goes by the name TPC Sawgrass — Woods and Mickelson struggled mightily.
Between them they made 20 birdies in 72 holes — and 14 bogeys, four doubles and one triple, an alarming number of above-par scores. Woods made the cut, a last-hole birdie on Friday assuring him of two more rounds. Mickelson flew west after his game went south and he missed the cut.
Still, those obits at the ready will go to waste. These two are too good not to win again, health permitting. Both will continue to look for answers, digging their games out of the dirt and working up a sweat in the gym.
That's exactly what Woods did after his form had fallen so far that he took a nine-week hiatus after leaving San Diego, his play so poor some questioned if he'd ever return. Relentless work on the range and in the gym got him back in line and offered proof his work ethic remains intact.
At the Masters after the long layoff, his chipping problems were a thing of the past and he was tied for fifth entering the last day, although a final-round 73 dropped him into a tie for 17th.
And he says he's healthy and will start finding a better rhythm now that he'll start playing on a regular basis. He and swing consultant Chris Como are still working on a few swing changes that he said will take a little bit more time to become fully integrated.
"Obviously I need tournament golf," he said after his second round. "My game is finally at a point where I can play tournament golf on a consistent basis. That wasn't the case early in the year. Wasn't very good. But I worked my butt off to change it, and I'm pretty proud of that, to be able to show up at Augusta and do what I did, and now I've just got to keep building from there."
Mickelson was frustrated about his performance this week. He was optimistic heading into Thursday's first round and felt prepared. He made nine birdies — but hit too many bad golf shots that led to bad numbers.
"I'm not overly pleased, but I'm not as discouraged as the scores would indicate just for the simple reason that, again, I made 9 birdies," said Mickelson, who will play next week in Charlotte, take two weeks off and then play the Memorial and in Memphis before heading to the U.S. Open.
At Augusta National, Mickelson's wife, Amy, said her husband was frustrated because he had worked so hard but wasn't seeing results.
Three years ago he built a putting green in his front yard, a testament more to his work ethic than any problems with a mid-life crisis.
Amy Mickelson said her husband is still hungry, especially for a U.S. Open title that would complete a career Grand Slam. Winning still drives him and she said he'll continue to work hard.
"He's far from done," she said. "Not even close."
She could have been speaking about Woods, too.