Phil Mickelson at Ford Doral: Give me Tiger Woods!

Phil Mickelson had some interesting comments after his opening round 65 Thursday at Doral. He basically said he wanted a piece of Tiger Woods on Sunday. Maybe he feels if he goes head-to-head with Tiger often enough, he won’t be so intimidated and likely to choke. Or maybe he meant he just wanted to be in the final hunt, and Woods was most likely to be his closest opponent.

Mickelson said the PGA Tour should do a better job of letting it be known which big-name players would be in which tournaments. The reasoning is that the big-name players would gravitate to tournaments where other stars congregate, setting up exciting finishes like last year’s Doral, where Woods beat Mickelson.

That makes sense, to the fans, television and the game itself. Last year’s Doral was thrilling, with two of the sport’s best players going at it. That can’t happen often enough.