Tiger Woods Masters: Hype Will Cause Tiger to Crumble at Augusta

Tiger Woods finally made it back to the winner's circle on the PGA Tour with his victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and the hype surrounding him has reached a fever pitch with just over a week to go before The Masters. 

All that build and anticipation is going to be the undoing of Woods at Augusta National. 

As Jamie Samuelsen of the Detroit Free Press wrote, Woods is going to be victimized by his own hype, because he is no longer the head-and-shoulders best player in the world. 

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Even during his ‘drought’ he still had four Top 5 finishes and twice finished fourth at Augusta. That’s just further proof that he never really left to begin with. And further proof that he’ll never own the game the way he once did...

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Samuelson goes further on this same point. 

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There are only four majors a year and there are a dozen guys with great chances to win. Woods is one of them. But he’s not the only one. And he’ll never be the only one again.

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Fans and analysts might be looking for Woods to return to his old dominant self, but those days are long gone. He has changed the sport in so many ways, one of them being the level of competition in the field. 

Before, Woods was the best player in the world because there was no one else like him. Today, Woods is one of many players who can hit the ball a mile and are confident putting from anywhere on the green. 

Hype is a dangerous thing because when expectations get raised, we can't help but be disappointed when someone fails. 

Woods has done his best to get back to the top of the golfing world, and he played arguably the best four round of his career since 2009, but to assume that he is going to be the player that wins every tournament he enters is far-fetched. 

There is no denying that Woods will be the story at Augusta no matter what he does. Just don't go in expecting his performance to match the level of hype surrounding him.

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