Tom Brady shared a (Photoshopped) picture showing, from left, Phil Mickelson, himself, Peyton Manning and Tiger Woods.
twitter.com/tombrady
Tiger Woods is, of course, wearing a “Tiger King” T-shirt.
Phil Mickelson’s calf muscles are just as big as his quad muscles.
Tom Brady is standing tall over a boy-sized Peyton Manning, Brady’s left hand on Manning’s shoulder and Brady’s right hand sporting four rings – to the two on Manning’s right hand.
One day after next month’s charity golf match between the Woods-Manning team and Mickelson-Brady team was confirmed, Brady took a 1-up lead in the trash-talking match – and the Photoshop match.
“Never had much of a hard time beating the colts or a tiger, don’t see this time being much different…” Brady wrote Thursday under the picture that he shared on his social media accounts.
“I don’t see it being any different either,” Mickelson responded on Twitter.
“Nor do I,” Mickelson responded separately on Instagram.
Brady’s reference to his record as a starting NFL quarterback is correct. He is 15-4 all-time against the Colts, Manning’s first team, and 8-4 against the Broncos, Manning’s second team. His record against the NFL’s four “feline” teams – the Panthers, Bengals, Lions and Jaguars – is 22-7.
The record wasn’t the only dig.
Pictured on a golf course, Brady and Mickelson are noticeably taller than Manning and Woods and noticeably happier, with Brady and Mickelson sharing a laugh and Manning and Woods looking pouty. Manning’s and Woods’ boyish charm is capped off by their T-shirts – Manning’s has the Hot Wheels logo and Woods’ has a photo of a tiger and Joe Exotic from the Netflix show “Tiger King.” There is also the inclusion of the rings – though Brady could have included two more for himself.
And there was the reference to Mickelson’s calves.
“You can tell this isn’t photoshopped because of the absolute trunks on @PhilMickelson” tweeted @kedmonds17.
“True story,” Mickelson responded.
Golfers and football players loved every bit of the post.
“That caption is too good!” Tony Finau wrote on Instagram.
“Ruthless!” Justin Thomas wrote.
“This is AWESOME!” former NFL quarterback Troy Aikman said.
The photo did have one small mistake – left-handed swinging Mickelson is holding a right-handed putter.
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.