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Cable Co.’s Pay for Phil vs Tiger

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LAS VEGAS – Major cable companies across the country said they will refund customers who bought the right to watch “The Match” between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on Friday — an event that ultimately was streamed for free.

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Comcast, Charter Spectrum and Cox Communications all have vowed to issue refunds for the purchase price of $19.99.

The ballyhooed pay-per-view event was produced by Turner Sports. Because of a problem with the interface for B/R Live, another Turner property, the event was made available via live stream at no cost. Mickelson won the $9 million, winner-take-all event in Las Vegas in 22 holes.

“Comcast will proactively issue a $19.99 credit to any Xfinity TV customer who purchased ‘The Match’ pay-per-view event,” the company said in a statement. “We hope Turner and Bleacher Report will do the same given that the event was made available by them for free on The Bleacher Report website.”

On Saturday, Charter Spectrum and Cox Communications issued statements to USA Today confirming they would refund customers who had paid.

“We are issuing proactive credits to anyone who paid for The Match through Cox,” Cox Communications said in its statement. “Since Turner streamed the event for free to a broader audience at the last minute due to technical issues we are happy to make it right for those who already paid.”

Turner Sports and AT&T, which operates Direct TV, haven’t commented on whether they will issue refunds.

–Field Level Media

Phil Outlasts Tiger in Playoff

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LAS VEGAS – Phil Mickelson birdied the fourth playoff hole in fading light to win “The Match” against Tiger Woods and claim the $9 million winner-takes-all prize in Friday’s pay-per-view event at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. With temperatures dipping into the 50s and the pair playing a 93-yard makeshift playoff hole from the practice putting surface back to the 18th green, Mickelson put his third attempt at the hole inside five feet.

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Woods, who didn’t hit a putt of more than five feet all day, left his own birdie attempt from just over seven feet short and right. That set the stage — for the fourth time — for Mickelson to close out the match. This time, he drained the $9 million putt.

Mickelson’s winning putt came moments after a show of great sportsmanship. After missing his birdie attempt on the third playoff hole, Mickelson told Woods to pick up his five-foot par attempt with the green illuminated mostly from production lighting, saying, “I don’t want to win like this, let’s go.”

They returned to the makeshift tee box for the third time. Woods hit his approach to under eight feet, only to watch Mickelson drop his tee shot inside of five feet.

It was a fitting end for a man known for his short game after Mickelson struggled with his short game throughout regulation. Mickelson missed only a few fairways through 18 holes, and would have ended the match hours earlier had he been able to cash in on severable makeable birdie putts.

“I’m just trying to calm down right now, my heart can’t take much more,” Mickelson said afterward. “This has been such an incredible opportunity to have a day like this with Tiger.

“He’s the greatest of all time. But to be able to have just to have just a little bit of smack talk for the coming years means a lot for me because I really don’t have much on him. He always drops the big picture and it’s the trump card. But to have a day like today … I never thought that we’d go to this extra hole. My heart can’t take much more of it.”

Mickelson and Woods also agreed to pay for side bets out of their own pocket that would go to charity. Woods won $200,000 on the first hole when Mickelson missed his birdie putt, but Mickelson swept three “closest to the pin” wagers on par 3s for a total of $600,000.

Woods struggled with his putter all day. Mickelson never trailed through the front nine but was unable to pull away, uncharacteristically missing several putts either short or to the low side of the cup.

Still, Mickelson arrived at the 17th hole with a 1-up lead. He appeared to be in the driver’s seat when he hit the green, while Woods’ tee shot bounded to the back and nestled against collar.

That’s when vintage Woods finally arrived, as he chipped in for birdie, flipping the pressure squarely back on Mickelson. Going from a potential putt for $9 million, Mickelson instead pulled the putt left of the cup, squaring the match going to the 18th hole.

“You’ve been doing this crap to me for 20 years, I don’t know why I’m surprised now,” Mickelson joked. “Great shot there, Tiger.”

Woods split the 18th fairway, while Mickelson’s drive wound up in the first cut of the rough. However, Mickelson’s shot over the water held the green, and Woods’ again rolled off the back.

Woods hit his third shot to just over five feet, giving Mickelson his first crack at a winning putt. His attempt from 32 feet again fell left, and Woods was able to convert his birdie putt to force the first extra hole.

They returned to the 18th hole. Woods pulled his drive left, giving him a stance in the pine needles that forced him to lay up. Mickelson, just feet from where he hit his second shot on the same hole just minutes before, nearly cost himself the match when he faded his approach shot.

Mickelson caught a break with his ball coming up just short of the water. Facing a buried lie, he managed to blast his ball over the creek and onto the green near his first putt on the 18th hole. Mickelson’s birdie putt again fell left, leaving Woods a seven-foot putt for the win.

Woods’ putter again let him down, as he never gave it a shot with the ball trickling short and left. It was one of numerous poorly-hit putts by Woods throughout the day.

With temperatures falling into the low 50s and light fading, that sent the match to a 93-yard chip shot back to the 18th hole from the practice putting green.

Woods’ first tee shot bounced off a spectator, and he got up-and-down for par. Mickelson hit the green, but left yet another chance to win short and left.

Back to the tee box, Woods again flew the green. Mickelson put his shot on the green, but was unable to convert — setting up the show of sportsmanship to head back to the tee box again in near darkness.

“I just hit bad shots,” Woods said of the 93-yard makeshift holes. “I’m usually pretty good at hitting the ball pin high, and that was a good example of what not to do.”

–Field Level Media

Tired Tiger

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PEBBLE BEACH – Tiger Woods admitted that fatigue played a role in his 0-4 record during the United States’ loss to Europe in last month’s Ryder Cup.
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Woods, 42, was coming off his first victory in five years at the Tour Championship, just five days before the start of the team event in Paris. That had completed a stretch of four grueling playoff events in five weeks, which came just weeks after the 100th PGA Championship.

Woods admitted that his body simply was not conditioned for that much golf after recovering from a fourth back procedure in 2017.

“It was just a cumulative effect of the entire season,” Woods said during a Q&A at his annual Tiger Woods Invitational at Pebble Beach on Tuesday. “I was tired because I hadn’t trained for it. I hadn’t trained this entire comeback to play this much golf and on top of that deal with the heat and the fatigue and the loss of weight.”

At the Ryder Cup, Woods lost all three of his group sessions and then dropped his singles match against Spain’s Jon Rahm.

Outside of the pay-per-view “The Match” against Phil Mickelson on Thanksgiving weekend and his Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in December, Woods said he is mapping out his future schedule.

“I’m still figuring that out,” Woods said. “Flying out here yesterday trying to look at the schedule, it’s the first time I’ve taken a look at it. I’ve been so focused on getting through the playoffs and the Ryder Cup that I just took a look at the schedule and saw how packed it is.”

Woods added that his 80th career victory was still sinking in, and that he’s already looking forward to next year’s Masters. There’s also next year’s Presidents Cup, where he hopes to be a playing captain.

“God I hope so,” said Woods, per Golf Digest. “I really hope to be a playing captain, I really do.”

–Field Level Media

Tiger: “One of the Contributing Factors” in USA Loss

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SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – (Wire Service Report) – No media fingers could be pointed at partners who didn’t live up to their end of the bargain on Sunday.

With an opportunity to build on the United States’ early momentum in singles on Sunday, Tiger Woods never led against Jon Rahm, and the Americans’ hopes for a dramatic comeback were all but dashed when Spain’s young star closed out his match with a clutch putt on No. 17.

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Tiger Woods

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With Europe holding significant leads in several matches left on the course, it was only a matter of time until the U.S. had officially lost its sixth consecutive Ryder Cup on foreign soil. Woods, 42, has never been a part of a victorious American team in Europe.

He did manage to square the match up after No. 12, but Rahm quickly took the momentum back by winning the next two holes and putting Woods on the ropes.

“The tee shot on 14 was big,” Woods lamented. “I didn’t put it in play, and I just made the – just got the match to all-square. Made eagle at 9 and birdied 12. So it was important to get the ball in play. Didn’t do it. Made back-to-back bogeys and consequently the matched slipped into his favor.”

Woods entered the day 4-1-2 in his Ryder Cup career in singles, but with only a 9-19-1 record overall after going 0-3-0 in group play over the first two days at Le Golf National in Paris.

He was the more solid player in each of his group pairings, but Sunday was an individual letdown while sitting in a critical position for the Americans, who had pulled within one point of the Europeans after winning 3 1/2 of the first four points.

“Well, it’s disappointing because I went 0-4, and that’s four points to the European Team,” he said. “And I’m one of the contributing factors to why we lost the Cup, and it’s not a lot of fun.

“It’s frustrating because we came here, I thought we were all playing pretty well, and I just didn’t perform at the level that I had been playing, and just got behind early in the matches and never got back.”

–Field Level Media

USA Ryder Cup: “C’est Fini”

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SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – (Wire Service Report) – Europe fended off a rally by the United States during Sunday’s singles to win the 42nd Ryder Cup at Le Golf National near Paris.

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Thorbjorn Olesen of Europe

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Europe began the day with a 10-6 lead, but saw the Americans chip away at that cushion with Justin Thomas beating Rory McIlroy 1-up out of the gates and the U.S. picking up 3 1/2 of the first four points.

Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen righted the European ship with a 5 & 4 rout of Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm put the U.S. on the ropes when he birdied the 17th hole to beat Tiger Woods 2 & 1. That gave the Euros 12 1/2 of the 14 1/2 points they needed to win the Cup and they led four of the six matches remaining on the course.

Woods finished the Ryder Cup with an 0-4-0 record, and Dustin Johnson didn’t fare much better. A few minutes after Woods’ defeat, Johnson lost 2 & 1 to Ian Poulter, putting Europe within a point of the victory.

At that point it was just a matter of determining who would seal the deal for Europe, and it became all but official when Sergio Garcia and Francesco Molinari guaranteed themselves at least a half a point on the course.

In a somewhat fitting – albeit anticlimactic – manner, Europe unofficially extended the U.S. Ryder Cup drought on foreign soil to at least 29 years when Phil Mickelson missed a birdie putt on No. 15 to go dormie against Molinari with three holes to play. Mickelson, playing in his record 12th Ryder Cup, has now been a part of six losing U.S. teams in Europe while Molinari capped the first 5-0-0 record by a European since the event went to a five-session format.

The victory became official when Mickelson hit his tee shot on No. 16 into the water. With Molinari safely on the green, Mickelson removed his hat, shook hands and conceded the match without ever leaving the tee box.

“Hard to describe, I’m just so proud of everyone on the team,” Molinari told NBC Sports on the course. “An amazing group of guys. Any one of us would have deserved to have clinched the point for various reasons. This team has been incredible from the start. We were determined to do the job, and nothing was going to stop us. And you saw it on the course.”

Alex Noren poured the final salt in the Americans’ wounds when the 36-year-old Ryder Cup rookie drained a lengthy birdie putt on the 18th hole to beat Bryson DeChambeau and extend the Europeans’ rout to a final tally of 17 1/2 to 10 1/2.

Woods and Mickelson, the two veteran captain’s picks, went a combined 0-6-0 in Paris, while Johnson’s 1-4-0 record was the worst ever in a Ryder Cup by a world No. 1 player.

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“The incredible pride that I feel to play the way I did,” Rahm told NBC Sports. “To beat Tiger Woods – I mean, I grew up watching that guy. Last week I was making a video from the East Lake clubhouse, just watching him win his 80th event. To play the golf that I did … a lot of emotions. There’s a lot of people that I was playing for, but more importantly for myself, and the pride and the humbleness I feel right now is beyond indescribable.

Poulter, a pick by European captain Thomas Bjorn, improved to 5-0-1 in Ryder Cup singles and 14-6-2 overall.

“I don’t think I can even quantify to tell you guys how much it means,” said Poulter. “You see it in the emotion of when we hole putts. You see it in the emotion of the fans. To be able to represent Europe is extremely special. To be able to win this thing back is even more special.”

Garcia, another captain’s pick, earned his 25 1/2 career Ryder Cup point, passing Nick Faldo for the most in history.

“To be a part of a European Ryder Cup team, all of them, it’s amazing,” said Garcia. “You can’t describe … there’s not enough money to buy it.

“I love everything about it. There’s nothing like it. There’s no other week where you open your chest to the guys you’re playing against week in and week out, and that’s what we do here. We fight as hard as we can for each one of us. And because of that, we’ve been able to be very successful.”

Then there was Molinari, who joined Arnold Palmer, Larry Nelson and Gardner Dickinson as the only players to go 5-0-0 in a single Ryder Cup. Four of those came with Tommy Fleetwood, whose only blemish was a Sunday loss to Tony Finau, and while fellow rookie Jon Rahm rebounded from a disappointing group stage to continue Woods’ misery in Paris.

Meanwhile, Jim Furyk will return to the United States as the sixth consecutive captain to fail to win the Ryder Cup on foreign soil. Europe has now won or retained the Ryder Cup in 15 of the past 18 events.

“I have to tip my cap to the European side,” he said. “I mean, they played great golf. My team fought hard, I’m really proud of them. End of the day, I think we dip out cap. Thomas did a better job than I did, they’re team played great. There’s not much else to say.”

Singles Results
(United States vs. Europe)
Justin Thomas vs. Rory McIlroy (Thomas won 1-up)
Brooks Koepka vs. Paul Casey (Halved)
Webb Simpson vs. Justin Rose (Simpson won 3 & 2)
Tiger Woods vs. Jon Rahm (Rahm won 2 & 1)
Tony Finau vs. Tommy Fleetwood (Finau won 6 & 4)
Dustin Johnson vs. Ian Poulter (Poulter won 2-up)
Jordan Spieth vs. Thorbjorn Olesen (Olesen won 5 & 4)
Rickie Fowler vs. Sergio Garcia (Garcia won 2 & 1)
Phil Mickelson vs. Francesco Molinari (Molinari won 4 & 2)
Patrick Reed vs. Tyrrell Hatton (Reed won 3 & 2)
Bubba Watson vs. Henrik Stenson (Stenson won 5 & 4)
Bryson DeChambeau vs. Alex Noren (Noren won, 1-up)

–Field Level Media

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