"Hey, thanks for looking after my buddy for me."

Oh how I love when overpaid swing instructors clash. Golf World's Jaime Diaz shares some great firsthand observations of the budding Rick Smith-Butch Harmon catfight over who gets to tell Phil Mickelson he needs to stop obsessing about distance. And great Dom Furore photo too (left).

Highlights:

Smith made it clear how he feels about Harmon’s forays with Mickelson when he saw Harmon on the practice putting green at the Masters and said, sarcastically, "Hey, thanks for looking after my buddy for me."

And Smith, more blunt: 

"[There has] probably been a lack of communication," said Smith Saturday, acknowledging that the partnership had stalled. “After awhile, the same message doesn’t get through as well. This morning before the round it got a little tense on the practice range because he was hitting the driver poorly and got confused. Finally, he sort of snapped at me, ‘Could you just give me one thing?’

Awkward!

Comments

[Fazio Hater]

Yes Phil, it's all Rick's fault that you suck. Butch, you know the drill....

[Steven T.]

How about this from Rick," Phil, it's your equipment. Why don't you try this new Hippo square faced driver?"

[Tuna]

Mickelson is lost, and most likely will continue to be if he lets both guys whisper in his ear.

Fire one of them, Phil. Tell Pelz adios, too.

Shorten the swing, and keep your front heel on the ground.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.

[ken-one-putt]

The ultimate, delicious irony would be if Phil begins seeing Butch on a regular basis, and then starts driving it like Tiger did back in 1999 and 2000 when he was first in total driving.

K

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Here's a link to the first page of the article:

http://www.golfdigest.com/newsandtour/index.ssf?/newsandtour/gw20070413mickelson.html

[Martin Del Vecchio]

And here's the best line:

"Butch probably wants to get back at Tiger," said Smith in a parting shot, "and maybe he thinks he can do that through Phil."