{"id":36293,"date":"2025-07-03T21:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/36293\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T21:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T21:12:10","slug":"the-player-who-tiger-woods-really-considered-to-be-his-biggest-rival-over-phil-mickelson-has-now-been-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/36293\/","title":{"rendered":"The player who Tiger Woods really considered to be his biggest rival over Phil Mickelson has now been named"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson enjoyed a superb rivalry at the peak of their stunning careers on the PGA Tour.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Woods<\/a> remains a PGA Tour player, while Mickelson<\/a> is now a regular on LIV Golf, representing one of its highest-profile recruits.<\/p>\n

Mickelson thinks Woods\u2019 \u2018smack talk\u2019 was underrated<\/a>, which was undoubtedly one of the more playful sides to their rivalry.<\/p>\n

It certainly got heated at times on and off the course over the years, but the pair have seemingly been able to clear the air.<\/p>\n

Woods thinks he inspired Mickelson<\/a> among other players, with the latter still going strong on LIV Golf at the age of 55.<\/p>\n

\"ThePhoto by Harry How\/Getty Images for The MatchWho Tiger Woods really considered his biggest rival ahead of Phil Mickelson<\/p>\n

But according to Woods\u2019 former caddie Steve Williams, there was another player who he considered his biggest rival on the course.<\/p>\n

Speaking on GOLF\u2019s Subpar podcast, Williams commented: \u201cDavid Duval, unparalleled. He [Tiger] thought that David had what it took to compete week in and week out and challenge him for number one supremacy.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> John Daly\u2019s story of how he beat Tiger Woods by six shots despite playing while still being drunk<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DavidPhoto by Montana Pritchard\/PGA of America via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the guy who was very short with time. David had that wonderful patch where he got to number one in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptured The Open Championship and then he made a drastic change with his body and lost feel with his golf swing and it took him a long time to get it going again. But he was the guy he had the most respect for and thought could challenge him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods vs Phil Mickelson vs David Duval major championship wins<\/p>\n

Woods remains sidelined from PGA Tour action, with the 49-year-old having been limited to TGL this season so far.<\/p>\n

But thanks to his efforts during the prime of his career, the legendary figure\u2019s tally of 15 major championships will take some beating.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> The tip Tiger Woods has for amateur golfers that could really help them when hitting off of uphill lies<\/a><\/p>\n

It is Jack Nicklaus who tops the all-time list with 18, with Walter Hagen the only other player in double figures with 11.<\/p>\n

Mickelson meanwhile boasts six major championship triumphs, while Duval won his only title at The Open in 2001.<\/p>\n

Intriguingly, however, both players could have extended their tallies if not for the presence of fellow American Woods.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He won The Masters in 2001 by two strokes ahead of runner-up Duval, and the 2002 US Open by three strokes ahead of Mickelson.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, both Woods and Duval reached the number one spot in the golf world rankings throughout their fantastic careers.<\/p>\n\n\nThe Masters<\/strong><\/td>\nUS Open<\/strong><\/td>\nThe Open<\/strong><\/td>\nPGA<\/strong><\/td>\nTotal<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTiger Woods<\/strong><\/td>\n5<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nPhil Mickelson<\/strong><\/td>\n3<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nDavid Duval<\/strong><\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, David Duval major championship wins<\/p>\n

But that achievement was not enjoyed by Mickelson, who came close at world number two but never made it to the summit.<\/p>\n

Woods\u2019 phenomenal success was undoubtedly helped massively by Williams, with the latter enjoying 13 of his 14 major wins alongside the former.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson enjoyed a superb rivalry at the peak of their stunning careers on the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[29656,1430,18752,62,29429,10130,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-36293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-david-duval","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-phil-mickelson","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-steve-williams","13":"tag-tiger-woods","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114791366322745068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}