Masters Favorites 2012: Tiger Woods and Stars Who Will Disappoint
The first week of April brings with it many great pleasures, but none quite as thrilling as the Masters tournament. This year is no different, with a wide-open field ready to fight over the green jacket.
All eyes will be locked on the big names that flock to Augusta this week, but don't be shocked to see some of the biggest and most popular players on the PGA Tour struggle to conquer the azaleas.
A loaded field will keep the Masters interesting, but don't expect to see these names near the top of the leaderboard.
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Everyone is itching to see how Woods follows up his victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week. His putting looked like it did when he was dominating the tour, and his driving accuracy has never been better.
The problem with focusing all your attention on Woods at the Masters is that you never know what is going to happen when he gets on the green.
As great as the putter looked two weeks ago, it has been so inconsistent for so long that one missed opportunity early could easily snowball on him, and before you know it he is so far behind the leader that it will be impossible to catch up.
You can't mention Tiger without talking about Mickelson, right?
Mickelson has turned Augusta into his own personal playground recently, winning three times since 2004. He has some momentum coming into the tournament, after finishing fourth at last week's Shell Houston Open.
Still, Mickelson is the greatest all-or-nothing player on the PGA Tour right now. He has always played the style where he just hits the ball as hard and as far as he can, but there is more finesse and strategy that goes into playing this event.
Unless Mickelson decides to focus on hitting fairways and greens in regulation, he is going to have a hard time staying in contention through Sunday.
Luke Donald
Donald has taken a short sabbatical from the PGA Tour since the middle of March and is ready to get back on course with the Masters.
The problem with Donald at Augusta is his game doesn't translate well to Augusta. He is accurate off the tee, but he only hits 66.7 percent of greens in regulation, and he doesn't have a lot of power to save shots on the longer holes.
Unless Donald plays the best four rounds of his life and drives the ball as accurately as anyone in the history of the event, he is going to find it difficult to have a lot of success this week.
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