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Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods will tee it up against each other in a little over a week in a $9 million event dubbed "The Match." The hype for this event has been ... kind of underwhelming, but HBO did air a little documentary on the festivities leading into next week's event at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas.

In the show, Mickelson recalled a moment at the 2012 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when he smoked Woods by 11 strokes on a Sunday and went on to win (with a 64 in Round 4!). 

Mickelson and Woods' partner, Tony Romo, had a dinner together the night before at Jim Nantz's house. They'd ended up sitting by each other but agreed not to talk about it with Tiger the following day when they were all paired together.

So of course as they're walking down the first fairway, Mickelson sees his opportunity. Here's how it all went down, in Lefty's own words.

Despite this story -- and it was a good one -- I'm not sure how much interest there is (or will be) in watching Woods and Mickelson go at it for 18 holes. Rory McIlroy was actually asked about that this week in Dubai.

"I contemplated [paying for and watching it], and ... I was having lunch with Phil," McIlroy said. "It was at one of the FedExCup events and I said, 'I might watch it.' He took $25 out of his pocket and said, 'No, here's $25. I'll pay for it for you. Thank you.' Look, if they had a done it 15 years ago it would have been great. But nowadays, it's missed the mark a little bit."

And Martin Kaufmann of Golfweek summed up my thoughts thus far brilliantly.

There's another problem: They have nothing to lose. We care about sports because wins and losses have meaning for the athletes and, by extension, their fans. But what meaning is there in "The Match"?

At one point, Woods said, "It's not only for the amount of money, but it's also the fact that I'm able to take it off of Phil." News flash, Tiger: You're not "taking it off of Phil." Neither of you put up your own money. Instead, it's just a couple of old warhorses milking gullible sponsors for a big payday.

I'll still watch, of course, but my expectations are about as low as they can possibly be, which is a pretty good place to reside, I suppose, if you're looking to be surprised.