The countdown is on for The Match: Champions for Change.
On Friday, when the rest of us are recuperating from our turkey dinners, Phil Mickelson will team up with Charles Barkley to take on Steph Curry and Peyton Manning in the third installment of the Match, which will be played at one of the courses owned by Mickelson Golf Properties, Stone Canyon in Oro Valley, Arizona.
Lefty was involved in the first two Matches. He defeated Tiger Woods in 2018 at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, but when he teamed up with Tom Brady earlier this year, they lost to Woods and Manning, a defeat that Mickelson jokingly questioned.
“We really should’ve won that match,” he said. “There were a couple things down the stretch, I mean, Peyton’s iron shot on 16 to 3 feet. I don’t know if that was legit. I don’t know what happened. I missed something. I couldn’t see the green … and somehow his ball is three feet from the hole when it’s all said and done. I don’t know, I question that.
“So I don’t wanna like, file lawsuits, you know, question the outcome or any of that stuff, but I do have a question on that one.”
Mickelson will likely have to carry plenty of the weight on Friday. Curry is a talented player, and Manning has shown he can swing the stick a little bit himself. As for Barkley, well, we’ve all seen that swing.
“At Stone Canyon, we actually have Chuck tees,” Mickelson said. “They’re a little bit further up.”
Mickelson described Stone Canyon as “pretty penalizing in spots because of the desert but it’s also got a great mixture of fun holes, like drivable par 4s, reachable par 5s.
“Our sixth hole is a spectacular par 3 with waterfalls and such. It’s only about a wedge. But it’s a very demanding shot.”
Mickelson then described part of the strategy that he and Barkley plan to deploy later this week.
“If I can hit the green, and let him putt, that’s our strategy on that. Same thing on the drivable par 4s. We saw what happened in Match II where we were really getting beat up pretty good and then Tom and I, on 11, I drive the green and he rolls the putt in for eagle and it just turns the whole match the other way.”
[lawrence-related id=778077496,778076957,778076941]