Mickelson Could Overtake Woods in Internet Betting. It has been a long time in Internet betting since anyone other than Tiger Woods was at the top of the golf rankings. That could change soon though as Phil Mickelson is poised to take away the top spot in online betting odds. Mickelson is favored this week at Colonial and he could be right there next week as well when he plays against Woods at the Memorial.
Internet betting odds have favored Tiger Woods for a long time but things are changing. Tiger is nowhere near the golfer he was a year ago while Mickelson is playing well. 12 years ago the Mark H. McCormack Award was created for the player who was ranked #1 the most during a golfing year. Tiger has won that award every year. That may change this year. In most weeks Woods is at the top of the rankings. In fact, 93 percent of the time in the last 12 years, Woods has been ranked number one. Every once in a while a player will be ranked ahead of him but not for long. David Duval was ranked #1 back in 1999 for 14 weeks. That same year Vijay Singh was ranked number one for a while. Now it could be that Phil Mickelson takes away the top spot from Woods. If Mickelson wins the Colonial this week, and he is the Internet betting favorite, he would take away the top ranking from Woods.
Mickelson has won 40 times in his career including four majors but he has never been ranked number one in the world. Mickelson won the Masters and he has been gaining points on Woods nearly every week. Tiger has been a non-factor this season and he is not playing well. Tiger announced that he is playing at the Memorial next week so it could be that he and Phil will get a chance to play together.
Unless Woods starts playing well, and there is no indication that is going to happen, someone else will be ranked number one in the world soon. The most likely candidate is Mickelson but Lee Westwood is right there at number three. Steve Stricker is at number four while Jim Furyk is number five. The bottom line is that the number one ranking in the world is up for grabs and that hasn’t been the case in golf online betting for a long, long time.