New Sympatico Column: Dream Drama of Woods vs. Mickelson at U.S. Open

My latest MSN/Sympatico column went online yesterday.

It can be found here.

Here’s a taste:

The start of the U.S. Open is just under a week away, but no storyline needs to be dreamed up by NBC for the telecast. This one comes with drama built in.

The concept is clear as crystal “ Phil Mickelson returns to New York only weeks after announcing his wife, Amy, the mother of three small children, has breast cancer. In the New York area Mickelson is treated like an everyman, which is strange considering he’s worth millions, has been a star since he was a teenager and flies about in his own jet. That’s not like many people I know, but certainly this health crisis allows those who have been afflicted with this nefarious disease to relate to the struggles of the Mickelson family. That’s some light coming out of an otherwise horrible situation.
On the other side, you have Tiger Woods, returning to Bethpage’s monstrous Black Course, where he won the 2002 U.S. Open in wet, muddy and downright unforgiving conditions. There’s a subplot here. — Woods will also be returning to the U.S. Open a year after his remarkable defeat of Rocco Mediate in San Diego. It turns out Woods was playing that tournament on little more than a broken hinge and painkillers. He limped through the final playoff round only to announce he’d shredded his knee and would be taking some time off to have it repaired. Turns out that the layoff was nearly 10 months, and when he came back he was noticeably rusty. Some said he’d never be the same.