"If I'd been the sheik coughing up the reported $1.5 million appearance fee to get him there I would not have been happy."

Phil Mickelson's game comes under scrutiny in this week's Steve Elling-John Huggan Pond Scrum.

Elling: Rhetorical question: How important is it for the health of the global game for Woods to demonstrate that he has something left in the tank? To me, it's nearly imperative that he hit the ground running. Fans have already turned away in proverbial droves -- some of that because of his behavior.

Huggan: Man, he has a long road to travel before he gets back to where he was. Not sure he can get there, to be honest. Most people look at the choice he made last year when he got to the fork in the road -- Steiny and Stevie or Elin and the kids. And look what he opted for. Not the decision of a good man.

Elling: With regard to your judging Butch query, it's ... different. Phil has always been an all-or-nothing player, so these fallow periods are nothing new. Phil has gone entire seasons without winning, before Butch. Tiger has won 25 percent of his career starts with three different guys standing behind him.

Huggan: Butch was supposed to make Phil better -- that's his job -- and in that he has failed completely.
Elling: Phil is driving the ball as well as he ever has. Butch does not control Phil's impulsive decision-making.
Huggan: I see no improvement in any aspect of Phil's game.

Elling: Come on, he is sending fewer guys to the hospital with gushing head wounds from wayward drives.