Sports Illustrated - USA (2022-05)

20 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM

THE BIG TWO

A LOOK AT THE COMPLEX AND INTERTWINED

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TIGER AND LEFTY

TIGER & PHIL By Bob Harig

Few athletes in any sport have been as inextricably linked as

Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. Though they’ve had surprisingly

few memorable head-to-head, Sunday-at-the-major battles,

each has loomed as a specter in the other’s career. Bob Harig’s

new book, Tiger & Phil, gives the rivalry the context it deserves,

explaining how the two disparate personalities have driven each

other for a quarter century. It’s a complicated relationship. While

Woods harbors something approaching a genuine dislike for Mickelson (after

losing a bet during a practice round in 1998 he stormed off and didn’t play another

warmup round with him for 20 years), Lefty comes off as grudgingly admiring

of Tiger but not being afraid to needle him. (In one scene, a pantsless Mickelson

explains to Woods that if he wore nicer clothes he, too, would take them off before

eating a sandwich.) With each golfer’s future currently cloudy, Harig’s book will

have fans hoping there’s more of this rivalry to come. —Mark Bechtel

STRONG LIKE

A WOMAN

By Laken Litman

While there

is still work

to be done in

the women’s

sports

landscape

(page 66), more

opportunities

for female

athletes exist

than ever.

Published in

conjunction

with SI, Strong

Like a Woman

profiles

100 pioneers—

some familiar

(Serena

Williams),

some less so

(mountain

climber

Kirstie Ennis).

With the 50th

anniversary

of Title IX

upcoming, the

book fittingly

honors the

giants

on whose

shoulders

today’s

women’s sports

stars stand.

READ

SCORECARD

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