General / Paul Krishnamurty / 17 March 2009 /

Life-long Lefty sceptic Paul Krishnamurty has had to revise his view of the world number two in recent weeks. However, Tiger Woods has never underestimated his rival and he will be keeping a close eye on Mickelson en route to Augusta.

Rarely has the saying that 'Form is temporary, class is permanent' been more apt. Its only a few weeks since I, amongst others, was seriously questioning whether Phil Mickelson's place at golf's top table was under threat.

Sunday's win at Doral, his second title in three events, was Mickelson's first in a World Golf Championship, and more importantly put those doubts to bed once and for all. He even managed to overcome a serious bout of dehydration that required a hospital visit after the third round. Even for a lifelong Lefty-sceptic like myself, it was hard not to be impressed.

Back in his customary World No.2 position, Lefty will head to Augusta as by far the main danger to Tiger Woods, and holding every chance of landing a third Green Jacket. Inevitably, the response from punters was emphatic. Having drifted out to [15.5] last month, since Sunday Mickelson has shortened to just [8.4], less than half the odds of the next best priced player.

Nobody would have kept a keener eye on Mickelson's progress than Tiger Woods. Many of us are willing youngsters such as Rory McIlroy to begin a great rivalry with Woods, and had Rory capitalised on a strong halfway position at Doral then that would have been the only story in golf. However, the upshot of last weekend's result is that, for now at least, the story going into the season's opening major will be a more familiar one.

Before Tiger can start thinking about the next generation, (poised as they are to challenge him), he must first deal with the threat posed by his closest rival of recent years. With a world ranking points tally of 9.14, compared to Mickelson's 8.62, they are closer in the rankings than I can ever remember since Woods took over the No.1 spot.

So what did we make of Tiger's comeback show? It was always going to be a very tall order to win a prestigious WGC event on his strokeplay return, but there was much to like about his performance. He never looked like winning, or even challenging, from the early stages as he was left behind by the low scoring, but his golf seemed to improve steadily as the tournament went on. A tie for ninth place was a perfectly respectable comeback. As with Mickelson, punters liked what they saw, with Tiger's odds for Augusta shortening from [4.3] to [3.8].

Furthermore, the fact that Woods has opted to play in the Tavistock Cup; making it six consecutive days of competitive golf; confirms that he's not overly concerned about the condition of his knee. So if we can leave that issue aside, the most important aspect to monitor is Woods' long game, and that looked in fine fettle over the weekend. He still looked rusty with his short irons, and his putting stats, (42nd in putts per round, 74th in putting average), tell their own story.

These are the areas that one would expect to require a bit more fine-tuning and practice, but with four weeks to go until Augusta, there's plenty of time for Tiger to make the necessary improvement. The next big test comes in a fortnight on a course where both he and Mickelson have won previously; Bay Hill. As defending champion and bidding for his sixth title on the course, Woods is bound to start a very strong favourite. At least now he knows that anything below his best could leave him vulnerable, and could result in the unthinkable. A new World No.1.

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