Legends

This video of Phil Mickelson cutting off Tiger Woods' first-tee introduction at the 2002 Tour Championship never gets old

September 01, 2021

Editor's note: This post first appeared in 2016. Sadly, neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson will play in the 2021 Tour Championship, but we'll always have this moment at East Lake between the two legends.

There have been plenty of great moments in the history of the Tour Championship, which begins on Thursday. Bill Haas' incredible watery par save in 2011. Hal Sutton's brilliant tee shot on the long par-3 18th at East Lake in a playoff against Vijay Singh in 1998. And Phil Mickelson edging Tiger Woods in 2000 just to name a few. But there's an underrated one that also involved Phil and Tiger that you almost certainly don't remember. And it happened before either of them hit a single shot one year.

In 2002, the two superstars were paired together in the event and on the first tee at East Lake on Thursday, the starter began rattling off all of Woods' accomplishments that season. After listing Woods' fifth and most recent win of the year at the American Express Championship, Mickelson, pretending(?) to be annoyed, interrupted by saying "alright, alright" and everyone—including Tiger Woods—burst into laughter. Watch this clip of it and try not to do the same:

Classic. Of course, Tiger and Phil have had more funny moments on the course together during the past few years, but that's going to be tough to top. Whether it's at the Tour Championship or just another made-for-TV match, though, let's just hope these two legends get another chance to tee it up together.