Will U.S. Open be a Woods-Mickelson showdown?

Tiger Woods is returning as the Pebble Beach U.S. Open winner 10 years after achieving what has been called the greatest major anyone ever has played. Phil Mickelson is the reigning 2010 major winner, the only golfer with a shot at the Grand Slam, having won an emotion-drenched Masters.

Each, in his own way, will be a defending champion this week. Each will also be a desperate challenger.

Mickelson will be chasing his holy grail, the U.S. Open trophy, after having been runner-up a record five times, including a tie for second at Bethpage last year. Woods will be trying to regain the confidence and equilibrium that made him the most celebrated athlete in the world before his personal tumble last year.

The U.S. Open at Pebble Beach will be yet another example of how these two Californian rivals can take wildly different routes and wind up at the same spot. Woods and Mickelson are ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the world (subject to change). And they will be attractions 1 and 1-A this week at the biggest show in golf.

Woods will begin at 4:36 p.m. (EDT) Thursday with Lee Westwood, runner-up to Mickelson at the Masters, and Ernie Els, who was tied for a very distant second to Woods, a record 15 strokes back, in 2000. Woods will be without a swing coach as he tries to regain the form and touch that seemed impenetrable 10 years ago.

Mickelson is working with Butch Harmon, who was Woods' swing coach in 2000. As he plays with Padraig Harrington and Y.E. Yang starting at 11:06 a.m. Thursday, he will be trying to end his most frustrating drought. When U.S. Golf Association officials were unsure about which of the three second-place finishers should receive the 2009 runner-up medal, Mickelson instantly demurred, saying, "I'm good," meaning he has had more than his share of those.

"Good" did not describe Woods' play the last time the Open was at Pebble Beach. "He was awesome to watch," Els said back then, having played the final round with Woods. Andy North, a two-time U.S. Open winner, said at the time, "It's got to be the best performance in the history of the game."

Woods will not say that, even now. "The '97 Masters was actually pretty good, I think," he said. "The 2000 British Open wasn't bad either."

At the very least, the Pebble Beach Open was different. There was his flirtation with danger when he hit his drive into the ocean on No. 18 of his second round and re-teed without a spare ball in his bag.

Mostly, it was about the putting stroke he perfected on a dusk shrouded practice green Wednesday of Open week. "I was telling Butch I was making putts, but they weren't going in the proper way. Like my speed was slightly off. Anything outside of 10, 12 feet, they weren't going to go in, not on those [poa annua] greens," he said recently. "I just found something. I can't remember what the key is. I should remember. I need to remember. But it was just one of those weeks where I just found that one key, and off I went."

"Off" has a much different connotation for him now. Woods was off the tour until April because he was in treatment following a sex scandal. His game has been off. He walked off the course in the final round of the Players last month because of a neck problem. Woods' trumpeted return at the Masters was ultimately displaced by the story of Mickelson winning while his wife Amy appeared in public for the first time since she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Mickelson seems to be best motivated by Woods. In the past nine months, he has won three tournaments in which he and Woods were entered. Woods won none.

"I think that as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate all that he has done for the game of golf and for me in particular," said Mickelson, who turns 40 Wednesday. "I've also found that I've needed him to help me get my best golf out, and he has pushed me to work harder and he has pushed me to become a better player. I find that I need him for me to play my best."

He is not as intimidated by Woods as he once was. "There are a number of reasons I won't go into," Mickelson said recently, still grappling with the odd reality that winning the U.S. Open is harder even than beating Woods.