Hey how about Doral, could be an interesting weekend:
Oh yeah, how do you feel about chip stocks?,, Not chip shots!
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Tiger and Phil at Doral, Round 2
By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer
March 3, 2006
MIAMI (AP) -- Tiger Woods crushed a 3-wood that carried long enough to clear a bunker and reach the 603-yard 12th green in two shots. Phil Mickelson watched his birdie chip head to the hole, only to spin out of the cup.
It looked a lot like their dramatic duel at Doral last year, even the final score.
Woods was one shot better.
The good news for Mickelson is that there are three rounds still to play in the Ford Championship at Doral, although it seemed as though golf's two biggest personalities had some unfinished business.
"This guy Tiger seems to play well every day, every week," Mickelson said. "I'm just trying to keep pace. I'm trying to maybe have another shot at dueling out with him on Sunday, and I'm glad that he's playing well. I've got to do my part and stay with him."
When a balmy start to the Florida swing ended with the soft, orange glow of sunset, Woods was at 8-under 64, his lowest score in the first round on the PGA Tour since he opened with 63 in the Western Open three years ago and went on to win by five shots.
All this got him was a one-shot lead over Mickelson and four others on an easy day for scoring on the Blue Monster. Scores were so low that 60 players shot in the 60s, 97 players broke par and 116 players were at par or better.
But all that mattered to the fans were two players who teed off at the same time Thursday, even if they started on opposite ends of the course.
At least they were together on the leaderboard, at least toward the end of the day.
"The times I looked at the board, neither one of us were up there," Woods said. "We weren't leading. I knew 7 (under) was leading, so try to get up there somehow."
A year ago, Woods and Mickelson staged a scintillating duel in the final round. Woods rallied from two shots behind, passed him with a 293-yard shot into the 12th for an eagle, lost the lead when Lefty made two birdies, pulled ahead with a 30-foot birdie on the 17th and won when Mickelson's birdie chip on the last hole lipped out.
Call this one Round Two, even if it was only round one.
Woods got off to a hot start on a tropical afternoon with birdies on three of his first four holes, including a tee shot within a foot on the 222-yard fourth hole. Mickelson made three straight birdies around the turn, and while his gallery was about one-fourth the size of those watching Woods, they were as passionate as ever.
There were throaty cheers when Lefty made a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 5, and one man yelled, "Yeah! He's letting Tiger know that he's coming!"
At that point, Woods was only about 250 yards away as he walked down the 14th fairway. He hit 9-iron into 10 feet, the start of three straight birdies that shot him to the top of the leaderboard.
It was sizzling stuff, even though it was only Thursday.
There are still three days left, and loads of other players capable of denying fans an encore.
Camilo Villegas, one of several promising rookies who hit the ball a mile, birdied four straight holes until settling for a two-putt par from about 8 feet on the 18th. That put him at 65, along with former PGA champion Rich Beem, Ryan Palmer and Mark Wilson, one of five players who got into this elite field with a top-10 finish in Tucson last week.
And with a mild breeze in the afternoon and soft conditions, no one could afford to take their foot off the gas if they wanted to keep their positions.
"If you shoot even par, you're going to get run over here," Woods said.
Steve Elkington has been playing Doral every year since 1988, and after a 67, he kept his optimism in check.
"This course always gives up low scores early in the week," he said. "It's nothing to get too excited about."
But there was plenty of buzz with Woods and Mickelson.
Woods, coming off a third-round loss in the Match Play Championship, played one of his most thorough rounds of his short year by keeping the ball in play, hitting solid irons and making putts on the smooth greens of Doral. He missed only three fairways, four greens and took 26 putts.
And his 64 could have been better had he not wasted shots on the par 5s.
He was pin-high on the par-5 eighth in two, elected to chip and blew it by 6 feet, missing the birdie putt. From the 10th fairway, he hit 5-wood toward the green and immediately flung it to the ground when he saw it turn to the left, into the water hazard. He took a penalty drop and chipped close to save par.
But he atoned for that with tremendous drives that left short irons into the green, and one good break when he chipped in from 25 feet on the par-3 15th.
Asked if it was his best round of the year, Woods paused to think before remembering the Match Play Championship.
"I played similar to this -- at least for 10 holes -- at La Costa," he said, referring to his record 9-and-8 victory over Stephen Ames in the first round, when Woods birdied seven of his first nine holes.
Mickelson has been held back only by his putting, and that was among his best clubs in the bag Thursday. He took only 25 putts, although he sure would have liked to make the 20-footer on his last hole.
"I was trying to get the last one to pull even with him," Mickelson said. "But I just couldn't quite do it."
Not yet, anyway.
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