Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson steal the show at the Masters

FROM AUGUSTA, GA. — It wasn't a pairing, it was a prizefight, two heavyweights bouncing improbably off a gentle green canvas for 18 furious rounds.

Phil Mickelson landed a left hook, and the pine trees roared.

Tiger Woods replied with a right jab, and the azaleas howled.

The final day of the world's most elegant golf championship was hijacked Sunday by two guys swinging grudges as steely as their clubs, fighting for a belt as well as a jacket.

They nearly stole the jacket. They did steal the Masters.

It was won in a bumbling two-hole playoff by Angel Cabrera over Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell, but the real story ended a couple of hours earlier, when Mickelson and Woods exhaustedly wobbled off the 18th green as if looking for a stool.

Together, they had begun the day seven strokes off the lead. Together, they charged back to within a tee length of the top before finally collapsing in perspiration and poor judgment.

Mickelson tied a course record with a front-nine 30, shot five-under-par 67 and finished in fifth place at nine under.

Woods had an eagle and four birdies, and finished with a four-under 68, tying him for sixth place at eight under.

It would be chilling enough if they had these final-day rounds on the same Augusta National course. Imagine, then, the static that buzzed through the pines as this greatness sparred in the same pairing.

There have rarely been bigger crowds here for a single twosome, thousands snaking through the course at their sides, folks standing 10 deep for seemingly every step.

There has perhaps never been a louder crowd for an early Sunday twosome, nearly 7,000 yards' worth of standing ovations, crazy shouts with every shot.

People shoved for better position. People leaped over each other for better views.

"They were going nuts," said Jim "Bones" Mackay, Mickelson's caddie. "They were really digging it."

They weren't the only ones.

"This was the most fun I've ever had on a golf course," said Mackay, who has carried a bag for 20 years, including for each of Mickelson's three major championships.

It was written here that because they started an hour earlier and seven strokes behind the leaders, Woods and Mickelson would be an empty pairing.

Even before they took their first swing, I was proven wrong.

Did you see their greeting on the first tee? The two guys have known each other for at least 15 years, spent most of their professional lives together on golf's top rung, and what did they do?