General / Editor / 31 May 2007 /

Phil Mickelson has played down his rivalry with Tiger Woods ahead of the Memorial tournament in Ohio, which begins on Thursday.

It is widely known that the two Americans are not the best of friends and they have failed to bond when partnered at the Ryder Cup in recent years.

Mickelson sits just behind Woods in the current world rankings and has enjoyed a superb season to date, with victory in The Players Championship and a number of top ten finishes on the circuit stateside.

Woods is the current 3.6 favourite to win this week's tournament, with 'Lefty' on offer at 8, and San Diego-born Mickelson is just happy to be mentioned in the same breath as one of the best players ever to pick up a club.

"It's flattering, to me anyway but probably not to him," he said. "I mean we're talking about probably the best player of all time."

Woods believes that any perceived rivalry has come from the media and he thinks that players must prove themselves over a long period to be considered as genuine rivals.

"Ever since I've been on tour they've been looking for a rivalry for me. I've had guys make different runs," he said. "You've got to do it a number of times to get that reputation.

"Watson and Trevino (beat) Jack (Nicklaus), but they didn't do it one time, they did it a number of times. Repeatability is the key. You can't just do it once."

The three legends mentioned by Woods will not feature this week but a host of top stars are plying their trade at the Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Vijay Singh, who briefly took over as world number one a few years ago, will hope to keep up his good form and can be backed at 18 to win this week, while Jim Furyk trades at 18.5 and Sergio Garcia is on offer at 28.

South African Ernie Els is being offered at 36 with Australia Adam Scott available at 29.

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