Every time Phil Mickelson wins a tournament, he doesn’t get to catch his breath before he is proclaimed the king of golf and placed on the throne. Of course in order to do that Tiger Woods has to be unseated, which the press is quick to do. Last week, Tiger missed the 3rd cut of his career. In early April, Phil won the Masters in stirring fashion. Consider the headlines:

• Is Tiger Woods Washed Up?
• Mickelson Making A Charge At TPC, But Tiger Doesn't
• You Talkin' To Me? Mickelson Outshines Tiger On Course and Off
• Young Mickelson Fan Tells Tiger Woods to Kiss No 1 Goodbye

Now consider the facts. Phil will be 40 years old on June 16th. He has won 38 tournaments including 4 majors, which averages out to about 2 wins a year. If Tiger, who is 35 and has won 71 tournaments and 14 Majors stops playing today and never wins again, Phil would have to win 10 more majors and a total of  33 tournaments at  double the rate he has won in the past. That’s probably not going to happen. Tger, on the other hand needs just 4 majors to Tie for the most ever and just 12 tournaments to have won the most…ever.  I believe Rory McElroy, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas and others are all fine golfers. We should root for them to be competitive, play their best and win whenever they can. The point is golf is a game played against the golf course. It is the difficulty of the layout and the weather conditions and the tremendous pressure to keep your emotions in check and your body under control that makes golf a great sport. There is no sustainability in pitting players of this era against each other. It ultimately only hurts viewership. If a rivalry between Phil and Tiger is pumped up and by Friday they are 10 strokes apart and neither one on the leader board, viewers will tune out.

The PGA could learn a trick or two from the Olympics. They should do their best to educate viewers about the game showing them how talented the entire field is, how difficult the courses can be set-up to be and how skilled the players are. They should then show how small the margin of error is and give us backgrounds on the players and help us get to know them, their struggles and successes. When we can truly relate to the players and appreciate their abilities, we’ll be more engaged and happier as players have breakthroughs and win on Tour.

I believe we should leave hype to head to head competitions like Boxing and football and let golf be what it is: One of the most challenging individual sports there is and a sport where the winner must overcome his or her own tendencies, nature and physics to triumph over, not other players but the course itself.