Masters Preview: Does Tiger Have What It Takes to Bring Home the Green Jacket?

The nature of the Masters, like any of the other three majors championships, is baffling. Even with Tiger Woods in the field and riding the momentum from his victory two weeks ago at the Bay Hill Invitational, the only sure thing about this Masters is that there is no sure thing.

Sunday at last year’s Masters had all of the suspense and intrigue of a Game 7 in the World Series. Rory McIlroy’s dreadful collapse led to a variety of players wrestling back and forth atop the leaderboard. A winner was finally crowned when the South African son of a chicken farmer by the name of Charl Shwartzel birdied his last four holes and chiseled his name in golf history.

There’s just as much uncertainty as there are reasons to be enchanted heading into this Thursday at Augusta National. Rory McIlroy hasn’t finished outside of the top five in a tournament since the end of 2011 and you can bet he has ravaged his mind over his final-round breakdown for the last 12 months.

Luke Donald played better than anyone in the world in 2011 and owns one of the most coveted titles in golf—the world No. 1 ranking. Phil Mickelson has won at Augusta three times before, Hunter Mahan has won twice just this year and a bevy of other players enter the Masters confident that they can earn their chance at the green jacket.

Woods, however, has found a way to be both the favorite and the dark horse at the same time. He hasn’t won a major since the U.S. Open in 2008, but he also owns 14 in his career. His putting has been neither confident nor sharp, but he is coming off a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He’s fallen short of the green jacket in each of his past six tries at Augusta, but he’s also won it four times.

It’s the range of players and parity in golf today that’s made the road to the 2012 Masters a curiosity-filled journey that officially begins this Thursday, April 5.

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