Mickelson's 'mystery partner' at National | 2022 Masters
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Posted March 7, 2012, 12:00 am
BY
David Westin
|
Staff Writer

Mickelson's 'mystery partner' at National

Phil Mickelson said after his news conference Wednesday at Doral that he was supposed to have played with Tiger Woods at Augusta National Golf Club on Tuesday in a friendly pre-Masters round, but that Woods didn't show.

 
"I guess it was the intimidation," Mickelson joked as he headed out the door.
 
Woods' name came up during the news conference when Mickelson, who did not play in last week's Honda Classic, had watched the tournament live on Sunday when Woods was shooting 62 to tie for second place.
 
Mickelson said he didn't watch it, but hinted that Woods was surely watching him Feb. 12 when Mickelson shot 64 in the final round to win at Pebble Beach. Woods, his playing partner that day, had 75.
 
"Yeah, obviously he was paying attention a couple of weeks ago, which is nice to see," Mickelson said.
 
After some laughter as a few reporters picked up on the joke, Mickelson said "at least I thought it was funny."
 
Seriously, he said of Woods:
 
"It is go to see him back and playing well.  He's always the name that you look at.  He's the first name that you look at on the leaderboard to see how he's doing."
 
Mickelson did play Augusta National on Tuesday, minus Woods. Here was his take on the course:
 
" It's in great shape as it always is.  There's more grass coverage than in years past.  Every year, two greens are redone with subtle changes, and this year those holes were 8 and 16. After looking at them, I think that some of the more challenging pin placements on those greens were softened a little bit, and made to be not quite as difficult.  I don't know if -- I'm not saying it's good, bad, indifferent.  But there was bigger plateaus up on the top right on 16.
 
"The green on 8 in the front was widened.  The hill on the left was softened.  So little things that I felt like the back right pin on 8 was made much more accessible.  It's much flatter, a lot more room there.  You can be a little bit more aggressive now into that pin.  So, it was interesting."

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