WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W. Va. ?It would be like catching a Rolling Stones concert ?only without Mick Jagger and Keith Richards jamming onstage.
It would be like going to dinner at Peter Luger Steakhouse ?only to find they뭨e sold out of both the filet and the porterhouse.
It would be like visiting the nation뭩 capital ?only to hear the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial are closed for renovations.
On Friday, for the first time in 198 occasions that they뭭e played the same PGA Tour event as professionals, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson each missed the cut.
Think about that for a minute: There have been 197 previous tournaments where at least one of the game뭩 two biggest stars has cashed a paycheck on the weekend.
Of those 197, one of them missed the cut only 22 times.
Of those 197, at least one of them finished inside the top 10 152 times.
Of those 197, they combined to win 69 times.
It was a truly remarkable streak between the two of 멷m. And it뭩 now over after 17 years.
Woods posted rounds of 71-69 and Mickelson countered with scores of 71-71 as each failed to finish inside the number at The Greenbrier Classic. The only other time that뭩 happened was at the 1993 Byron Nelson Championship, when Woods was still a baby-faced 17-year-old amateur.
During a week in which rumors have circulated that each player may have received ?or will be receiving ?some sort of appearance fee that circumvents PGA Tour rules via loophole, there was a line making the rounds on social media sites that these turned out to be 밺isappearance fees?instead.
What does it all mean going forward? In the grand scheme of things, not much.
Woods?missed cut came in his first trip to the West Virginia foothills, while Mickelson failed to reach the weekend for the second time in two tries here.
For a pair of players who clearly want their games to peak four times a year ?they own 14 and four major championship titles, respectively ?missing the cut should hardly equate to some type of death march on the private jet home.
For Woods, it marks just the ninth missed cut of his professional career and the first time that he didn뭪 reach the weekend in the very next week after a victory. Coupled with his MC at the Wells Fargo Championship earlier this year, it뭩 also the first time since 2005 that he뭩 missed multiple cuts in a season.
Of course, when weighed on the scale against three wins already this season, it should hardly be cause for concern.
밒t happens,?Woods said after his round. 밳ou know, you miss cuts out here. I뭭e been doing it for a long time and I think I뭭e missed nine cuts. One or two every couple of years, I guess.?/P>
Coming off Sunday뭩 triumph at the AT&T National, he maintained that he was surprised by his result.
밳eah, because I had my distance control dialed in,?Woods explained. 밄ut this week I was hitting balls so far. I know it뭩 hot; I know there뭩 altitude. [But] my sand wedge is going 142, 145 [yards], wedges 160. These are not numbers I normally hit. Some of the bigger guys hit those numbers, but I don뭪. I was really struggling to hit the ball on the right number.?/P>
As for Mickelson, despite a win and two other top-three finishes so far this season, there should be greater cause for concern.
Friday뭩 round was his seventh consecutive over-par total, a number he had never before reached during a Hall of Fame career.
밒 don뭪 know what to say about that,?Mickelson said. 밒t hasn뭪 been great. The parts don뭪 feel that far off, but I haven뭪 been putting them together.
For the second straight day, he carded three birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey, leaving him cautiously optimistic, but without full confidence in the current state of his game.
밒t doesn뭪 feel bad off the tee; it doesn뭪 feel bad with the iron play; it doesn뭪 feel bad chipping or putting,?he added. 밄ut I뭢 making a lot of loose drives here or there, some loose iron shots here or there, missing some short putts here or there, and just haven뭪 been putting it all together.?/P>
It뭩 easy to focus on the negative after Tiger and Phil ?one-named wonders, each of them ?fail to find any success on the very same week.
It isn뭪 the end of the world for either one, though. Far from it, in fact. With the Open Championship coming up in two weeks, each will have a chance to redeem himself on a much bigger stage, far from the West Virginia countryside that rendered them mortals for the past two days.
If anything, the end of their streak should be met with celebration. For 17 years, the game뭩 two biggest stars combined to live up to expectations nearly every single time they teed it up in the same event, with at least one of them always sticking around for the weekend.
This isn뭪 the end of some era, but that streak is over now. The historic numbers remain, though, as do memories of a shared run that deserves to be appreciated for its longevity