Ever since he burst onto the professional golf scene in 1996, fans have always compared Tiger Woods to The Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus. Would Tiger become the best player to ever live? Will he break Jack's major championship total? But in which player does Nicklaus see shades of himself nowadays? Phil Mickelson.

According to the Golf Channel's Jason Sobel, Nicklaus gave kudos to the newest Open Champion in addition to comparing Mickelson's game to his own.

“I give him great kudos for what he's done over the last couple weeks. I'm very happy for him. I know that for him to go win at the British Open as high as he hits the golf ball, like I was,” said Nicklaus. “I won at Muirfield and I was a high ball hitter and people said, ‘Jack will never win, particularly Muirfield. ‘It's a golf course he can't play.’

“And I proved them all wrong there by being a little smarter than some of the other guys on that particular week. I didn't use a driver very much.”

Mickelson certainly proved any doubters wrong last week -- myself included -- and in impressive fashion.