For a moment it was unclear if this was really Phil the Thrill or the USGA promo in which duffers utter pithy euphemisms like "Hairpiece" after an endless string of toxic shots.

But while Montgomerie, 42, squandered his best chance in years to win the major title that still eludes him, Mickelson, 36, will be back. Critics will spin Lefty's Jean Van de Velde impression as a stubborn refusal to give up his freewheeling ways, since he hit driver on the last when a 3-wood or long iron or anything in the fairway would have sufficed. They'll say that watching Mickelson's slow-mo implosion was like seeing an alcoholic falling off the wagon, complete with the predictable, horrifying results. Live by the driver, die by the driver.

But here's the thing: Mickelson had no idea where anything was going Sunday. The way he was hitting the ball, he could have made 6 even if caddie Jim (Bones) MacKay had given the driver to the USGA museum before they reached the 18th tee. Mickelson hit two of 14 fairways. He missed with the driver, 4-irons—he missed with everything. It's just that he covered up his mistakes, until 18.

"Well, I still am in shock that I did that," he said. "I just can't believe that I did that. I am such an idiot. I just couldn't hit a fairway all day. Just couldn't hit a fairway all day. I tried to go to my bread and butter shot, a baby carve-slice on 18 and just get it in the fairway, and I missed it left. It was still okay, wasn't too bad. I just can't believe I couldn't par the last hole. It really stings."

Mickelson's drive on the 72nd hole recalled his famous miss at the 2004 Ryder Cup, when he and Tiger Woods were alternate-shot partners. Locked in a tight match, the left-hander stepped up to the 18th tee, swung and watched, ashen faced, as the ball took off on a left-to-left flight. It's the evil Chucky in his repertoire that pops up every so often and kills its master.

"It's a hard test of golf," Mickelson said, when asked to explain his and Monty's 6-6. "I mean it's just hard. Fairways are tight, they're brick hard. I hit two good 4-irons right in the middle of the fairway, on 15, on 11. Neither one stayed in the fairway. I mean they were perfect 4-irons in the middle of the fairway. It's just hard to hit fairways here, and I made it look extremely difficult."

In other words, Mickelson picked a bad day to turn into Tiger. For all the explaining Mickelson had to do for one lousy round, Woods had two, and both were worse than Phil's flop. It appears, as it has for a while now, the two are moving in opposite directions. Woods hit just seven of 28 fairways at Winged Foot (perhaps it should have been called Crooked Stick) to shoot 76-76 and miss his first cut in a major after making 39 straight to tie a record held by, yes, Jack Nicklaus. Much was made of the end of his streak, but Woods was coming off a 2005 season in which he twice missed cuts in regular Tour events.

The greatest player on the planet in 2000, when he triumphed nine times, winning famous duels with Bob May at the PGA and Ernie Els at the Mercedes, Woods can no longer finish in the top-10 with his C game and looks lost on tight, tree-lined courses. Mickelson hit 15 of 28 fairways in the first two rounds at Winged Foot, and seven of 14 on Saturday. That wasn't great, and his performance Sunday raises questions that will demand answers, but it's Tiger, not Phil, whose game looks unpredictable and one-dimensional.

Give him a track where there are few to zero trees, or wide, forgiving fairways, and Woods can win every year, as he does at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines (two straight) and the Ford Championship at Doral (ditto). He has weeks where he finds the fairway on tighter, old school layouts—he finished T3 at the 2004 Wachovia Championship, which is played on Open-worthy Quail Hollow Club—but they are few and far between since he changed his swing three years ago, and he plays a mostly bomber-friendly schedule. It's no coincidence that Woods and Daly have done well on the same courses, like Torrey Pines South and Harding Park.

Woods, 30, no longer inspires awe but questions. Was 2005 a con? He won five times, but on driver-friendly courses. Is he still steering from his burning desire to eclipse Nicklaus's 18 career majors? It's a goal that seemed attainable after Woods won the British Open at St. Andrews last summer, and far away after his spiritless 76s.

As defending champion Michael Campbell said, Tiger seemed to lack his famous intensity. Maybe it's his putting. Woods blamed his work on the greens after he took 117 putts at this year's Masters, three more than Mickelson, just as he faulted his flatstick at the 2005 U.S. Open.

Or, perhaps, even after all the press and Nike's elegiac Father's Day ad we underestimated the impact of Earl's death. Perhaps Woods's 2006 will be like Mickelson's 2003, a personal ordeal that renders his job moot.

Still, time marches on, and you have to wonder how many times Woods will watch Mickelson win at the newly tree-lined Augusta National, how many times he'll hit it all over the yard at the U.S. Open, or how often he'll play well but not well enough at the PGA, before he scraps everything, including coach Hank Haney, and starts over. Woods famously ditched his old swing after winning the '97 Masters, hiring Butch Harmon, but left Harmon even after going on the most mesmerizing run golf has ever seen. Woods picked Haney on the recommendation of his close friend Mark O'Meara, but O'Meara, like Woods, is leaving Isleworth, their gated community in Orlando, and one suspects it won't be long before we see another change, and the unveiling of Tiger 4.0.

Woods will win more majors but his aura has faded, and all that remains is for Phil to beat him one-on-one. Mickelson lost the Open, but that he was in a position to blow it was due to his short game wizardry and at least one extremely lucky bounce. He played well enough to win for three days, but Woods played well enough to win for none. His near misses at Pinehurst and Baltusrol, his no-show at Winged Foot and his virtual annuities on the handful of courses he knows how to play do not a legend make.