When a 45-year-old who has had five back and five knee surgeries says he just survived something far worse and cannot see himself being a full-time golfer again, take his word for it.
Here were two rivals who stood on opposite sides of the ball, with such completely different personalities that you almost had to fall in line behind one or the other.
The golfer who used to show up at every event saying he expected to win, and who once irritated fellow pros by saying he won a tournament with his “C game,” left any remaining bravado on the side of that California road.
He always liked making safe little golf jokes, deadpanning he was happy “I broke 80” after rounds when he was by far the best player in the world.
Tiger always believed he would win, always convinced himself he could do what probably could not be done, and was always convinced, like a great hockey goalie or cornerback, that he was about to dominate, no matter what he had just done.
There are good questions that should still be asked, about why Woods was driving 82 miles per hour in a 45-mile per hour zone when he crashed, and whether the empty pharmaceutical bottle in his backpack contained the kind of drugs that once sent him to rehab.
Mickelson is the defending PGA Championship winner, but his win at Kiawah in May felt like a farewell even to him: “It’s very possible that this is the last tournament I ever win,” he said before he left the course that night.
Golf is a game for a lifetime, or close to it, so it is natural to wonder if the most dominant golfer ever can come back from horrific injury, especially when he did it once already.