Golf’s Great Divide

Dusk is creeping up the pine trees at the Sawgrass Players Club, but Vijay Singh isn’t heading for the 19th hole. After shooting a 5-under-par 67 in the first round of the Players championship, the world’s top-ranked golfer ambles over to the driving range, pulls an iron out of his bag and, like a windmill, whacks 10 balls straight down the fairway. He switches irons and hits 40 more. Autograph seekers would be advised to go elsewhere. “I’m not going to stop,” he tells his caddie. After 80 more shots, sunlight has dropped into the cup. “That’s what I do,” Singh, 42, told TIME after his workout. “I go through my routine, and that’s my routine. And I’m not going to change it for anybody.”

There isn’t much doubt about what Singh is shooting at. In 2000 Tiger Woods started piling up major tournament victories, obliterating one field after another. He needed a foil. Now he has two. Singh the swing machine helped bring Woods, 29, crashing to earth last year, winning an astonishing nine tournaments and a record $10.9 million in prize money to pass Tiger in the world rankings. Meanwhile, fan fave Phil Mickelson, the perennial bridesmaid who was 0 for 42 as a pro in majors (the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA championship), won the 2004 Masters and has climbed to the fourth slot in the rankings.

What makes the Woods-Singh-Mickelson trio so spicy is that the players are not exactly three amigos. Although they publicly deny any feuds, Woods and Mickelson, and Woods and Singh, definitely have a history. Their competition has spawned an angry buzz that swirls around the pro tour like bees at a picnic. “If you’re shooting to be No. 1 in the world, it’s a lonely thing,” says veteran golfer Kirk Triplett. “There’s not a lot of friendliness when you’re trying to beat a guy’s brains in.” Others are even more direct. “They rub each other the wrong way, sure,” says one player. “A lot of it is arrogance. Some of it is condescension. I guarantee you they want to beat the other guy just because he is the other guy.”

With Woods winning two tournaments this year and briefly reclaiming the top spot, each of golf’s Big Three looks primed for the sport’s biggest prize, a green jacket at the Masters, which tees off on Thursday in Augusta, Ga. “Listen, there’s not a dime’s worth of golf difference between any of these guys right now,” says Brandel Chamblee, a PGA player and commentator for the Golf Channel. “We didn’t want parity at a mediocre level. We have parity at a superstar level. I mean, what else do you want?” Only third-ranked Ernie Els could spoil this spitting contest, because the South African, known as the Big Easy, is so damned amiable.

The schism between Woods and Mickelson dates back at least two years, to when Mickelson called Woods’ Nike clubs “inferior.” Woods boiled. “It was a little sucker punch,” says Fred Funk, this year’s Players-championship winner. “That creates a bit of animosity between the guys.” Mickelson apologized, but the bad blood spilled over to last fall’s Ryder Cup, at which U.S. captain Hal Sutton paired Woods and Mickelson against European opponents. Although teammates, they could barely look at each other. It didn’t help that Mickelson played like a Sunday hacker; when he sliced an 18th-hole drive into an impossible lie, Woods grimaced in disgust. But the dysfunctional dynamic is a gift for the tour. When the pair went shot for shot at the Ford championship on a Sunday in early March (Woods won by a stroke), NBC’s year-over-year ratings ballooned 96%. Tour officials are salivating over the rebirth of classic rivalries like Jack Nicklaus– Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus–Tom Watson that could sustain pro golf for a decade.

Handicapping Mickelson, 34, is now as much a part of the tour as plaid pants. “Lefty” never stops smiling, even on days that would cause most guys to smash a locker or three. After finishing in a tie for 40th at the Players championship, he dutifully signed autographs. Friends call his rapport with the fans genuine, even when the cameras aren’t rolling. Says Chamblee: “When you’re on tour, you’ll invariably get a courtesy-car driver from the airport, and seven or eight times drivers have told me, ‘Oh, I picked up Phil Mickelson last night, and you know, he could not have been any nicer.’ And when you just want to get to the hotel, you don’t have to be nice.”

Mickelson’s perpetual cheer in the world’s most frustrating sport simply irks some players, including the intense Woods. “It’s soooo programmed,” says another player. “It’s a strategy, but you know what? It’s a damned good strategy because it’s working.” When asked about Mickelson’s image, golf Hall of Famer and NBC analyst Johnny Miller breaks into a show tune. “Hah-lly-wood,” he sings. “It’s all Hollywood, man. Phil’s a smart guy like that.” Mickelson has no answer to accusations of excess gregariousness: “I don’t really have anything to say. I really don’t know what to say.”

Mickelson’s passions are diverse: family, flying and the unified theory of the universe. He’s a fan of physicist Stephen Hawking. “I find it very fascinating[the concept of] traveling at the speed of light and how the aging process ceases and how the planet has been extinct 20 different times,” he says. “It’s just a much bigger picture than the here and now.” One of Mickelson’s closest friends on the tour, Davis Love III, chuckles at his pal’s cosmic ruminations. “Basically, I’m like, ‘What the hell?'” he says. “Obviously, he’s a very smart guy. But sometimes that leads to quirkiness.” And leads others to roll their eyes.

What comes out of Singh’s mouth is sometimes far too understandable. Two years ago, he said bluntly that LPGA superstar Annika Sorenstam didn’t “belong out there” with the men at the Colonial tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. “He’s just not a diplomat,” says golfer Joey Sindelar, who has known Singh for almost 20 years. “And so what?” Singh isn’t looking for a mulligan either. “It was kind of blown out of proportion,” he says. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. What’s done is done.” He enhanced his two-strokes-over-cranky persona when he ran into Chamblee, who at a crowded Toronto restaurant said Singh had “missed the point” about Sorenstam’s effort to play with the guys. Singh flipped Chamblee the bird. “I really didn’t take offense to it. I was just shocked by that sort of gesture,” Chamblee says, “because in the end, I just thought it was a difference of opinion.”

While his U.S. and European counterparts honed their games at colleges and country clubs, Singh, a Fiji native of Indian descent, barnstormed the world, playing in Nigeria and Morocco, even working as a bouncer in Scotland to make ends meet. “Playing in different countries, with pretty much no money in your pocket, you kind of get a different attitude about life,” he says. “You’re a harder player.” So while Mickelson is flying Cessnas and Woods is fishing, Singh is hitting golf balls as though his next meal depends on shooting under par.

He’s most at ease around other golfers, though he isn’t as relaxed around Woods. “I don’t know,” Singh says about the rift question. “He’s a good guy. It’s just that the pressure, the situation of him being as good as he is and the demands on his time, it’s very hard to get close to a person like that.” Singh didn’t like Woods’ comments about the Sorenstam affair–“I wish Vijay hadn’t said that”–or rumors that Woods suspected him of using an illegal driver. Woods fumed when Singh’s caddie wore a hat at the 2000 Presidents Cup emblazoned with the words TIGER WHO?, and of course he hates trailing Singh in the standings. Woods declined to talk to TIME.

The PGA Tour is a traveling high school lunchroom, and sports fans eat up the bickering as though it were a Tater Tot. Which player do you like at Augusta: The stalking Tiger? The surly workaholic Vijay? Or triple-chipper Phil? Mickelson, who slept in his winner’s green jacket after last year’s Masters, says being defending champ is an advantage. Only three players have repeated at Augusta: Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Woods (2001-02). “I hadn’t won a major, so I had that mental hurdle to get by, which tends to wear on you over time,” Mickelson says. “I don’t anticipate it being harder to win.” Indeed, Mickelson is also coming off back-to-back wins in February.

Miller, a former U.S. and British Open champ, thinks this could be the best Masters in years. “The friction is good for the game,” he says. “Now if they would just say, ‘I’m better than that guy. I’m going to win today,’ that would be even better.” C’mon, guys, a little trash talk in golf? Doubtful at hallowed Augusta. But we’ll be watching just in case.

Keeping Score

Who’s the best of the Big Three? In the key rankings, none of them lies in the rough

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

PGA Tour Wins

Wins in Majors

Career Money

World Ranking

’05 Money Rank

’05 Scoring Rank

1

2

3

4

5

6

SINGH

25

3

2

1

2

3

WOODS

42

8

1

2

3

7

MICKELSON

25

1

3

4

1

1

Figures as of April 1