John Biever/SI

Mickelson finished one stroke ahead of Woods at nine under par.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - They didn't win, the two players who so command our attention. But Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson reminded us why we watch, and they brought thunderous applause to Augusta National.

"It was a great show," CBS's Nick Faldo said on the air, laughing as he spoke for all of us. "It was a fantastic show."

Mickelson made a stirring charge on the front nine, carding a record-tying, six-under-par 30 to get to 10-under for the tournament. But Phil's appeal has always been, at least partly, his unpredictability, and that cuts both ways.

When he hit a 9-iron into Rae's Creek on the par-3 12th hole, he evoked Geoff Ogilvy's comment about Tiger's heroics at Bay Hill this year: "Everyone is impressed, but no one is surprised." Mickelson fought back with a birdie on 13, but he missed putts inside six feet on 15 (for eagle) and 17 (for birdie). Eventually, he ran out of holes.

He bogeyed the 18th to card a 67 and finish nine under.

"I got it going," Mickelson said. "There were a lot of pins you could get to. I knew that before I even teed off."

Woods also did more than enough to make it exciting. He birdied the par-5 second hole, made a handful of tough par putts and eagled the par-5 eighth to get to seven under. Birdies on 13, 15 and 16 got him to within one of Kenny Perry's lead, but it wasn't enough. Woods was absent his A-game, either missing wildly off the tee or hitting his approach shots on the wrong shelf, or off the green. He left himself tricky chips and more lag putts than birdie putts. A bogey at 17, his first of the day, sealed his fate.

"I hit it so bad today warming up," Woods said. "I was hitting quick hooks, blocks, you name it. I hit it all on the range, and then on the first hole I almost hit it into eight fairway. It's one of the worst tee shots I've ever hit starting out. I fought my swing all day and just kind of Band-Aided around and almost won the tournament with a Band-Aid swing today."

You would have thought it was 1997, to judge by the scene as players, caddies, coaches and hangers-on arrived for the final round. Kultida Woods, dressed entirely in red, including a visor the size of a lampshade, strode up in the middle of a red-shirted, Nike-swooshed Tiger posse.

"Hi, Fluff," she said to caddie Mike Cowan, Tiger's former bag man whose marshmallow mustache matched his white coveralls. "Good luck, today."

"Hi, Ma Woods," Cowan said back as he rubbed a towel over Jim Furyk's grips.

Tida continued on, and stopped under the club's huge oak tree to hobnob with Nike majordomo Phil Knight, also dressed head-to-toe in red. Everyone was abuzz over the 1:35 p.m. pairing, which promised to be good and delivered better than that.

Alas, this was not 1997, the year Woods won the Masters by 12 strokes. Nor was it 2006, when Woods helped Mickelson into his second green jacket. Back then, it seemed that for the foreseeable future the two best players in the world would simply be taking turns winning the Masters.

On this Masters Sunday, Tiger and Phil started the day at four under, seven behind and in need of a miracle that seemed far-fetched even before they both pulled their opening tee shots into the trees on opposite sides of the first fairway.

CBS was gaga over the pairing of the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world, because we're still fascinated by them. Only now, with their games in very different places than they were 12 or even three years ago, we're fascinated for different reasons.

Woods has always commanded the spotlight with his short game. But there's another reason why we can't tear ourselves away, and that reason is to see how long he can stay atop the ziggurat. He often seems to win tournaments now by one stroke, with a clutch birdie putt or two in fading daylight. His sense of the moment is mesmerizing, but without Sean O'Hair playing like a dead man walking at Bay Hill two weeks ago, Woods doesn't even get the chance to play the hero. All of which begs several questions:

Has Woods come back to the field? Has the field caught up to Woods? Has he not had enough time playing at full strength after major knee surgery last summer? While his stock miss has always been to the right, he started hooking the ball at Augusta this week, making double-bogey on the first hole after a wide-left drive Saturday, and flashing the old one-armed follow-through after the same shot Sunday.

"Tiger's going backward this week," GOLF Magazine Top-100 teacher Brady Riggs said. "He's not hitting the ball as well now as he was hitting it Thursday."