Golf-Woods and Mickelson eye Memorial showdown

DUBLIN, Ohio, May 31 (Reuters) Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are both playing the Memorial tournament for the first time since 2002, setting up the chance of a mouth-watering showdown on Sunday For that to happen, however, the world's top two players will have to master a strong field at Muirfield Village including eight of the world's top nine players and defending champion Carl Pettersson of Sweden.

Mickelson has been a regular absentee from Jack Nicklaus's event, while three-times winner Woods skipped it last year due to the death of his father.

Neither has played for a fortnight, but they spent their two weeks off very differently, Mickelson continuing to work on swing changes with new coach Butch Harmon and Woods hardly touching a club due to sponsorship commitments.

''I wasn't really practising,'' Woods told reporters yesterday, adding that he had a cold. ''I was just training, trying to get my body back to get my body in shape for the run to the US Open. Now I'll start practising a little harder.'' Both players will have one eye on the US Open, to be held at Oakmont next month. Woods visited the course several weeks ago and Mickelson popped by on Monday.

''I think Oakmont's greens are the toughest in America, because the pitch where the hole is more severe than the next toughest, which is probably Augusta,'' Mickelson said. ''It's going to be a very difficult test, on and around the greens.'' Woods echoed his rival's comments.

''That course is going to be one of the toughest tests we've ever played in a US Open, especially if it's dry,'' he said. ''If it's dry, it'll be unreal, because those greens are so severe.

''You've got to drive it great there in order to have a chance to hit those greens. You think you can run the ball up there, but you really can't. The bunkers are so deep that you've got to drive it well and hit your irons well.'' But Oakmont is still a couple of weeks away, and the Memorial may serve as a tasty appetiser between Woods and the resurgent Mickelson, who won the Players Championship barely a month after switching coaches.

''Probably halfway through,'' Mickelson said when asked to assess where he was with his swing changes.

''We have one or two more things I want to implement, but it's taking a little time to feel comfortable with a couple more swing changes, especially in competition,'' he added.

REUTERS TB PM0946