Masters Favorites 2012: Woods and Mickelson Have Earned Right to Be Favored

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have won a combined seven Masters tournaments. When they aren't winning, they're finishing in the top 10.

Tiger has wound up in the top 10 in each of the past six years since his win in 2005 and Phil, outside of his three wins, has finished in the top 10 eight times since 1999.

The two biggest names on tour return to Augusta this weekend as two of the tournament's three favorites. Sandwiched in between Tiger at 4-1 and Phil at 11-1 is Rory McIlroy at 11-2, according to Bovada.

The Northern Ireland youngster won his first major last year at the U.S. Open after his epic meltdown at the Masters a few months prior.

He's supremely talented and deserves to be one of the favorites, but not on the level of Tiger and Phil.

The two have absolutely dominated Augusta like none other. They've earned the right to be the favorites, as they are, for the Masters.

We've seen players flash—Mike Weir (2003), Trevor Immelman (2008) and Charl Schwartzel (2011) just to name a few recent ones—and come away with a win, but Tiger and Phil have won six of the last 11 Masters tournaments.

They've not only been there and done that, but they don't it so frequently that we can never count them out when they're in the field.

Throw in Woods' recent triumph at Bay Hill and he more than deserves to be the favorite in this weekend's tournament. Phil, who just finished tied for fourth at the Shell Houston Open and won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am earlier this year, has to be taken seriously every time he's on the course.

These two stars are always out to win at Augusta and they more than deserve to be the favorites.