Masters 2012: Rory McIlroy Will Cement Elite Status with Augusta Win

If you take a look at the list of the favorites to win the 2012 Masters, you'll see that Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are right at the top.

As well they should be. Tiger has finished in the top 10 at the Masters seven straight years and is coming off his first official PGA Tour victory since 2009. McIlroy, meanwhile, has been playing outstanding golf all year to this point, and he currently sits at No. 2 in the World Golf Rankings.

For the record, Tiger's odds of winning sit at 4:1 and McIlroy's sit at 5:1, according to Bovada. The tournament hasn't even started yet, and the two of them are neck and neck.

It's at this point that we usually talk about how you never know what's going to happen in golf, and that we can all rest assured that nothing will go according to plan when the tournament actually rolls around on Thursday. And it's true, golf is by far the hardest sport to predict.

But this year's tournament does feel like the first real Tiger vs. Rory matchup, a clash between golf's one-time prodigy and golf's current prodigy.

It's very, very tempting to pick Tiger to win it, which is something I haven't said in a long while. Despite that, I have to go with McIlroy.

We've spent much of the last couple weeks praising Tiger for winning his first tournament in several years at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but I, for one, wonder if the casual golf fan has noticed just how good McIlroy has been since the start of the season. He's finished in the top five in four stroke play tournaments, and he finished second at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

McIlroy has been hot, plain and simple.

And McIlroy is hot now more than ever. He won The Honda Classic in early March and he finished third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Every part of his game is clicking, from his driving to his putting. 

McIlroy doesn't look like a hey-what-a-great-story player or an up-and-comer anymore. He looks like a professional ready to add several majors to a collection that already includes one.

That collection should have two majors in it, of course, and McIlroy should know what it feels like to wear a green jacket. He had the 2011 Masters in the bag through three rounds, as he was heading into the final round at 12-under and with a four-stroke lead over his pursuers. All he had to do was stay the course.

Instead, he quite literally went all over the course. McIlroy ended up carding a brutal 80, and he finished tied for 15th. 

You have to look on the bright side. McIlroy choked, but he also proved in the first three rounds that he's perfectly capable of handling Augusta National. Mastery (pun kinda-sorta-not-really intended) of the course is one of Tiger's biggest advantages, and it's something McIlroy can match.

McIlroy, however, has one advantage that Tiger can't match, and that's simple consistency. Tiger is definitely playing better now than he has in a long time, but there are no guarantees that this if for real. It's far more sensible to expect McIlroy to be at his best at Augusta than it is to expect Tiger to be at his best, though I do expect him to do well.

To make a long story very, very short, I'll just say this: As far as right now is concerned, McIlroy is the better golfer. He'll look like the better golfer at Augusta National.

The odds say Tiger is the man to beat, which is fine. But McIlroy is going to beat him.