Golf: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson eye rivalry rematch during coronavirus shutdown

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will reportedly play in a coronavirus relief golf match next month, with Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

The charity match will be held at an undisclosed location, without fans, and is being organised by the PGA Tour and AT&T's WarnerMedia, CNBC reports.

Negotiations are still being finalised, but the match pitting 15-time Major champion Woods and Manning against five-time Major winner Mickelson and Brady could be aired on live TV, and is unlikely to feature on pay-per-view, the report says.

"Discussions along these lines have been ongoing for quite some time, but nothing has been approved by the tour," the PGA Tour said.

A match-up featuring two of the most famous golfers of their era and two of the all-time greatest NFL quarterbacks would be a rare sporting event during the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought the sporting world to a halt.

The event would feature a small production crew to film it and each individual would obey social-distancing recommendations to stay six-feet (two metres) apart.

Mickelson was asked recently on Twitter about the chances of a round of golf against Woods being live-streamed in the near future and the American replied: "Working on it."

When another fan tweeted to Mickelson, asking him not to "tease", the 49-year-old responded: "I don't tease. I'm kinda a sure thing."

Woods, 44, last competed in mid-February and then withdrew from several tournaments with a back injury, before the PGA Tour cancelled a slew of events, because of the coronavirus.

Mickelson finished third at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in early February and missed the cut in his next two starts.

Woods and Mickelson played each other in a winner-take-all US$9 million (NZ$15m) matchplay exhibition in November 2018 that was golf's first venture into pay-per-view.

That event was hyped like a Las Vegas prize fight, but proved more of a pillow fight, with both golfers in jovial mood, playing for a purse that was put up by sponsors and went to a charity of Mickelson's choice.

Brady recently joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after 20 years with the New England Patriots, during which he won an NFL-record six Super Bowl titles.

Manning, who played for the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos, retired in 2016 as the NFL's all-time leader in passing touchdowns and yards, and is the only five-time winner of the league's Most Valuable Player award.

Reuters