The rumors of a Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson rematch match during the COVID-19 pandemic are heating up, and they may not be alone if and when they do play. Michael Bamberger reported this week for Golf.com that the proceeds for such a match (a sort of follow-up to their Thanksgiving match a few years ago) would go to charity and that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning were reportedly being considered to pair with Woods and Mickelson.
Both ideas are great -- we could use some optimism and entertainment these days and the more big names the better -- but I have some suggestions if Brady and Manning don't work out. Some suggestions that would provide even more entertainment than four of the biggest sports superstars of the last five decades.
Let's pretend as if every pairing I suggest has to be split and put with Woods and Mickelson. This would make sense given the skill levels of everyone involved, and you could put together a lot of intriguing combinations, starting with one from the NBA that I am dying to see.
Michael Jordan-Tiger Woods vs. Steph Curry-Phil Mickelson: Put it in my veins! I wanted to go with LeBron James here instead of MJ, but the swing is not a good swing. I'm also not sure who's giving away strokes in that Curry-Mickelson twosome. The charisma here would be off the charts, and you would maybe literally get 50 million people to watch this, maybe more if LeBron was involved.
Mike Trout-Tiger Woods vs. Aaron Judge-Phil Mickelson: You could throw in an Astro to make it more interesting, but this is probably the baseball-related duo that makes this event the most appealing. Plus, we could see if this bomb from Trout is indicative of his actual game.
Lionel Messi-Tiger Woods vs. Cristiano Ronaldo-Phil Mickelson -- I have no idea if they can play, but if you're trying to end a global pandemic by congregating as many humans as possible around their televisions to generate as much money as humanly possible, these are the two best choices from the sports world.
Roger Federer-Tiger Woods vs. Rafael Nadal-Phil Mickelson -- This actually might be my favorite combo. Federer and Woods are the two prettiest to ever do it in their respective sports. Nadal and Mickelson, not so much, but they're still among the all-time greats. Plus, I can't even imagine the things Mickelson would say to Federer and how he would respond.
Donald Trump-Tiger Woods vs. Barack Obama-Phil Mickelson -- Yeah, like 100 million people (or more?) aren't tuning to watch this. The more I think about this idea, the better it sounds. As long as you can do it in a safe, controlled environment, the ratings for something like this would be stratospheric. Not to mention the money that could be raised to go toward both first responders as well as future research and development as we all try and end this pandemic together.
Imagine a Thursday night with sports on again -- Tiger, Phil, LeBron and Steph (or Obama and Trump or Trout and Judge) playing 18 holes of golf with an entire country tuned in. This needs to happen, and it needs to happen soon.
