Wide Left: Could This Be the Best Masters Tournament Ever?

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Jay Busbee of Yahoo's Devil Ball Golf joins the show to talk about the Masters. Busbee wrote this week that he thinks this year's tournament is set up to be the best in the history of Augusta. No, that's not hyperbole. 

Golf spins on the axis of Tiger Woods, and the better the world's greatest player is playing, the more people seem to care about the sport. Even when he hasn't been at his best, Woods has always played well at Augusta, finishing in the top six every year since 2005 and all but three years since 1997.

So, too, has Phil Mickelson. Including a lackluster performance last season, Mickelson has only missed the top 10 at Augusta twice since 1999 and has eight top-five finishes since 2001. Phil's worst three finishes since the turn of the century came in years after he won (10th, 24th, 27th). The next year, Mickelson finished first and fifth.

What can he do this year?

For the first time in a while, both Woods and Mickelson are playing well heading into Augusta. Busbee thinks that Woods playing so well right now is great for Mickelson, because much of the pressure of coming to Augusta is off him.

Can Phil somehow sneak up on the field? Can Tiger dominate Augusta again? Could we be in store for a Tiger-Phil run down the back nine on Sunday? Would that make it the best Masters ever?

Answer: Yes. 

But that wouldn't be the only thing to make this year's Masters great. Bubsee points out an incredible depth at the top of the game right now, including a host of major champions and a lot of players who are still looking for their first major title.

As much as golf will always be about Tiger and Phil, our conversation isn't as much about them as the other players who can challenge for this year's green jacket. 

We talk about Rory McIlroy bouncing back from a disaster on the 10th hole on Sunday last year and what the young superstar has done since. McIlroy could have been shaken by his collapse, but he went the other way, winning the very next major he played and reaching No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings.

History, though, isn't on McIlroy's—or any young player's—side at the Masters. In the previous 75 Masters, the green jacket has only been given to 18 players under the age of 30 (though 25 times, with some winning multiple tournaments before turning 30). Just seven players in Masters history have won a green jacket before the age of 25.

Defending champion Charl Schwartzel won the tournament at 26 years old and has as good a chance as anyone to win it this week. So does defending PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who is high on the lists of golf writers but could be one of those names most casual golf fans still don't know. 

Zach Johnson and Trevor Immelman have green jackets and really haven't done that much since. Do we project too much success on players after they win the Masters? Will that happen to a relatively unknown player again this year, or are we set up to have one of the game's elite stars win at Augusta again?

Will it be time for someone like Luke Donald—the world's No. 1 player who still doesn't have a major? What about Lee Westwood, who always seems to end up a major championship bridesmaid? Can Steve Stricker grind out a win? What about Adam Scott or Bubba Watson or Nick Watney?

The depth is incredible.

Even with Tiger Woods looming over everyone in the tournament, the field is as open as it could be.

So maybe Busbee is right. Maybe this is shaping up to be the best Masters ever. Or maybe our excitement about all the pieces being in place means we're ripe for someone like Steve Marino to pull off an out-of-nowhere, wire-to-wire victory.

Either way, it's golf at Augusta. There isn't much wrong with that.