Watch: When Tiger Woods left Phil Mickelson ‘heartbroken’ with a birdie at Bay Hill in 2001
Soon after debuting on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods became a dominant force on the American golf circuit. In the course of ten years, between 1996-2006, he registered 54 victories, including 12 major golf tournaments.
Just recently, NUCLR GOLF shared a throwback video of Tiger Woods' incredible birdie on par 18 to defeat another top golfer of that time, Phil Mickelson at the Bay Hill Invitational 2001, now known as Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The video was first shared by Skratch on their Twitter handle back in 2018. Here is the video:
At the 2001 Bay Hill Invitational Tiger Woods needed a par on 18 to force a playoff against Phil Mickelson… he made birdie. ⛱️⚡️🔙 At the 2001 Bay Hill Invitational Tiger Woods needed a par on 18 to force a playoff against Phil Mickelson… he made birdie.
pic.twitter.com/zMHLfa4h2c
It happened during the final stage of the Bay Hill Invitational when Phil Mickelson carded two consecutive birdies to take the lead. Then on his final hole, he shot a great par save.
Then 26-year-old Woods had terrible few shots in the final round hitting two fairways. Then on the 16th, he pulled out his 7-iron to hit the ball on the greens of par-5, to finally putt a birdie.
However, on his 18th hole, he hit an abysmal shot that appeared to be out of the boundary. The ball hit a spectator and reflected back to the ground. He later picked up the ball and hit 195 yards shot that landed him 15 feet near the hole. He, then, sank an unbelievable birdie to defeat Mickelson by a mere margin of one stroke to register his 25th PGA Tour victory.
Interestingly, Woods has won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, formerly known as Bay Hill Invitational, eight times in his career, this is tied for most victories in a single event on the PGA Tour.
Comparing Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson: Wins and Net Worth
Well, comparing Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson is tough, as both of them are modern legends of golf. However, the latter is way behind Woods.
On one side where Woods has 82 PGA Tour titles registered to his name, Mickelson has 45 titles under his belt, which is just more than half of the former.
Tiger Woods has an impressive record with 15 major wins in his career. He secured five Masters Tournament victories (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, and 2019), four PGA Championship wins (1999, 2000, 2006, and 2007), three US Open titles (2000, 2002, and 2008), and three Open Championship victories (2000, 2005, and 2006). He has achieved three career grand slams by winning all the majors at least three times.
On the other hand, Phil Mickelson has six major wins to his name. He has three Masters Tournament victories (2004, 2006, and 2010), two PGA Championship wins (2005 and 2021), and an Open Championship win in 2013. However, he is yet to secure a US Open title.
As per Forbes, Tiger Woods has a whopping net worth of $1.8 billion, which included $121 million won on-course on the PGA Tour.
Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson is way behind and has a net worth of $400 million, as per golf monthly. However, he has a massive on-course earning of $94 million on the PGA Tour. And if he had not switched to LIV Golf, he might have surpassed Tiger Woods in this aspect as the latter does not compete regularly now.