In the first-year ABC drama "Flash Forward," a worldwide blackout occurs for two minutes and 17 seconds, during which every person witnesses a glimpse into the future. Not just any random date and time, mind you; every vision offers a sneak peek into that person's life on April 29, 2010.

The show's main characters each preview various levels of turmoil, from an FBI agent foreseeing his own investigative research into the event to others confronting such personal matters as marital infidelity and pregnancy to one who views nothing at all -- an implication that said character won't live to see the day.

Being the good company guy that I am, I've had a flash forward of my own to next April. The good news? I'm still alive. The better news? I'm still employed.

In this vision, I am hunting and pecking at the very same keyboard being used right now. I can make out only bits and pieces of the content, but the main premise comes across loud and clear: Four months into the golf season and with the Masters Tournament already in the books, the world's two most talented golfers are already putting on a show for the ages, parrying for position on leaderboards and asserting their prowess over the game's other elite-level players.

Allow me to answer your question before you ask: No, my flash forward didn't include an image of either Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson winning another green jacket, meaning we'll all have to wait a few more months to unveil that result. There is little doubt, though, that the Nos. 1 and 2 players in the current Official World Golf Ranking will find themselves in contention at Augusta National Golf Club, whose festivities can't come soon enough.

Even if you're suspicious as to the legitimacy of my apparition -- hey, it happens on the show, too -- there are various other underlying factors that should enable this dream to come true.

Let's start with the guy who is already considered by some to be the greatest golfer of all time. We can safely assume Woods will be on top of his game next season, because, well, he's almost always on top of his game. In 17 official PGA Tour starts this year, he finished in the top 10 on 14 occasions, and despite failing to win a major championship title for the first time since 2004, still managed to find the winner's circle a half-dozen times en route to what will assuredly be his 10th Player of the Year award.

This all comes on the heels of last year's season-ending knee surgery, an injury from which he should finally be fully recovered entering the 2010 campaign. Sure, you could say Tiger is no longer as dominant or as intimidating as he once was, but don't base such thoughts solely on his most recent final-round foibles. To put it bluntly, he's still the best in the business. It doesn't take blackout-fueled intuition to see another big year in the cards.

That leaves Mickelson, one of the most accomplished players in the game's history who often receives criticism simply for the fact that he isn't Tiger Woods. At his best, though, Lefty can hang with his adversary on any given Sunday, as evidenced by victories at the Tour Championship two months ago and the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament this past weekend in China.

Based purely on the numbers, Mickelson's season paled in comparison to that of Woods. He made one more official appearance but owned seven fewer top-10s and half as many victories. (The HSBC doesn't count toward his PGA Tour win total.) Of course, it's careless to judge his season on statistical evidence alone, as it was interrupted by two absences of more than a month to be with wife Amy, who was undergoing treatment for breast cancer throughout the summer, and later his mother Mary, suffering from the same illness.

It would be the ultimate game of "coulda, woulda, shoulda" to attempt to calculate his performance without such a burden, but know this much: Through the Players Championship in May -- prior to his first lengthy absence -- Mickelson owned two victories to Woods' one and very well may have been the POY to that point.

He has now finished off the 2009 campaign playing his best golf since winning back-to-back titles at the BellSouth Classic and Masters three-and-a-half years ago, if not the best golf of his career. Thanks to assistance with the forward-press putting stroke from two-time major winner Dave Stockton, Mickelson is rolling his rock with the utmost confidence -- something he can only hope remains during the offseason.

And so where does that leave us here at the end of the golf season? Impatiently staring at the calendar, waiting for next year to begin, biding our time until that glimpse into the future becomes a thing of the present.

There have been only a handful of occasions over the past dozen years in which Mickelson and Woods have purported a true mano a mano rivalry, battling each other down the stretch at an important tournament. With each man seemingly at the top of his game entering the next decade -- and with the four majors being held at magnificent venues (Augusta National, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews and Whistling Straits) during the upcoming year -- golf's two biggest stars may finally be aligned for the most dramatic, entertaining season we've witnessed in a long time.

Even though I've already witnessed such a proposition in my vision, if this season taught us anything, it's that we should always expect the unexpected. I still believe this flash forward will come true, but don't be shocked if the game's best players fail to live the prophecy, in essence turning the 2010 golf season into another J.J. Abrams vehicle instead: "Lost."

Jason Sobel is a golf writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Jason.Sobel@espn3.com.