SAN FRANCISCO — This is going to come as a surprise, but golf and professional wrestling have nothing in common. We've never seen Tiger Woods take a metal chair to the back of Phil Mickelson's head (although I'm sure he's thought about doing it numerous times), or Lee Westwood give a sidearm shimmy to Rory McIlroy.
Golf is a dignified game ... or so we thought. If you closed your eyes for a moment during Friday's round, you could've sworn you were sitting ringside at a battle royal pitting three of golf's most recognizable names against each other in a fight for ultimate supremacy.
"Tiger and Phil and Bubba in the same group is going to be huge," Rory McIlroy said early in the week about the Woods, Watson, Mickelson grouping. "If I was a golf fan I'd want to watch that group, because I'm sure you'll see some fireworks. So it should be a good group to watch. "
While there weren't a whole lot of fireworks, fans still showed up in droves, lining Olympic Club's fairways at least ten deep and craning their necks in an attempt to see the most talked about grouping in major championship history.
Just like a professional wrestling match, fans made it known who they were rooting for during the first two days of the tournament.
I came here to see you Bubba, not Tiger Woods!
Please follow us on Twitter, Bubba!
Go Phil! You're the only family man in the group!
15, baby! That's all that matters! (Reference to Woods going for his 15th major championship.)
And those were just a few of the shouts that were of the PG variety. Without question, the fans that followed the Mickelson-Woods-Watson group more than lived up to their end of the bargain, turning the grouping into a circus atmosphere.
If that's what the USGA was going for they should consider the experiment a success. It was clearly the most talked about item of the early week and everyone, and I mean everyone, wanted to tell their friends they'd been a part of the crazed atmosphere.
Even Fred Couples and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers showed up to take in the action, walking inside the ropes with media and tournament officials. When star athletes and golfers not even in the group start showing up to tag along, you know you're onto something big.
While some fans left grumbling about spending a majority of the time trying to get a decent spot to see the action, it was clear from the buzz and excitement that grouping three big names together at a major championship works.
Sure, it might clog up one particular area of the course or keep the fans from following other groups, but at the end of the day, what really matters is putting on the best show possible on golf's biggest stage.
"I could get used to this," one guy told his buddy as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson walked by.
So could a lot of other golf fans. The big question now is if we'll see another supergroup in the near future.
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