Leading up to Friday’s “The Match: Champions for Change,” the made-for-TV charity golf event at Oro Valley’s Stone Canyon Golf Club, the team of NBA star Stephen Curry and former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning was favored to beat the Phil Mickelson-Charles Barkley duo.
Based on their USGA handicaps, Curry and Manning had 16 reasons — or strokes — to leave Tucson with a win over Mickelson and Barkley.
Mickelson and Barkley needed all of 16 holes to win the event, which raised $5.45 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The title sponsor Capital One will donate $250,000 to Florida A&M and North Carolina A&T.
Mickelson and Barkley, both Arizona residents, had a home-course advantage. Mickelson took over ownership of the world-class and exclusive par-72, 7,317-yard Stone Canyon Club in 2014, and Barkley had played three practice rounds leading up to Friday.
“I don’t feel at home on any course, just for the record,” Barkley joked.
Manning and Curry didn’t expect to lose. But the chance to play golf in 60-degree weather under the Tucson sun against a PGA Tour professional and a Hall of Fame basketball player, with the money raised benefiting HBCUs made for a positive four-plus hours at Stone Canyon. Golf and HBCUs are two of Curry’s passions: Last August, Curry revived the Howard men’s and women’s golf programs and provided six years of funding for the teams.
Manning and Curry, who spends the NBA offseason playing in Korn Ferry tournaments around the U.S., were expected to come out victorious but lost with two holes left.
“My old coach, Tony Dungy, used to tell me, ‘No excuses, no explanation,’ so we tried to go see all the holes this morning in a fast and crammed session,” Manning said. “Heck, they made some great shots and huge putts.”
And oh, the banter.
“Instead of the ‘Round Mound of Rebound’, (Barkley) is the ‘Round Mound of Up and Downs,’” said Manning. “I was hoping it was going to be ‘Round Mound Out of Bounds,’ but he wasn’t. Great touch around the greens and those guys deserve the W.”
To start the match-play round, Manning sent his opening tee shot into the desert surrounding Stone Canyon. Luckily for Manning, the best-ball format allowed him to hit the second stroke following Curry’s tee shot.
Manning and Curry holed out and took a one-hole lead to start, but Mickelson and Barkley won the following four holes and never looked back.
“Hole 1 was great,” Curry said. “After that, it was kind of a blur.”
The ninth hole, a Par 3, was the “turning point” for the winning pair after Barkley sent a shot within tap-in distance on the green.
One of the unique elements to The Match was Mickelson’s coaching approach with Barkley, who’s an avid golfer but has an infamous hitch in his swing.
Mickelson embraced the role of being the coach.
“The work that my man put into his golf game to play at this level and hit the number of shots that he hit and defy the expectations, nobody thought he was gonna play this well,” Mickelson said.
Barkley said he’s “been working on my golf game for a minimum five hours a day the last two months.”
Between hole challenges, including a $2.2 million hole-in-one challenge, and friendly banter, Friday afternoon at Stone Canyon was an event to remember.
“Today we raised millions of dollars for HBCUs, going to some great schools around the country, great colleges, helping scholarships, helping golf programs. … I wish we put on a better show in the end,” Manning said.
“But the real winners no doubt are these colleges with the money raised. … It was a special day to be a part of it.”
