Tiger Woods Masters: Fifth Green Jacket Would Be Start of Redemption

Tiger Woods finally got back to winning ways with a dominant performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational late last month.

He now returns to Augusta, where he set the course record at in 1997 and where he put on the green jacket on three other occasions, in search of his first major win since the 2008 U.S. Open.

It has been a long road since Tiger's epic off-course collapse and, partially due to a string of injuries, it has been far too long since he's won a major championship.

However, this weekend, the expectations are as high as ever—he's currently the favorite at 9-2, according to Bovada—and everyone is looking at this as his possible breakthrough.

A win would be huge for Tiger, but it will only be the start of his true return to glory. 

Despite all that has happened, this is the same Tiger that got us talking about Jack Nicklaus' 18 majors at the start of the century. Between 1999 and 2002, the superstar golfer won seven of his 14 majors. Even more impressive is that his tear began at the 1999 PGA (last event of the year) and ran through to the 2002 U.S. Open (second event of the year), which gave him seven championships in 11 attempts.

Between 2005 and 2007, Tiger won five more majors and finished in the top five in five others. That means that only twice in a 12-major span was Tiger not in contention to win. 

He hasn't finished worse than sixth at Augusta since his last Masters win in 2005. Even when he was at his lowest level, he found ways to compete at the highest level.

However, he won't be complacent with just his fifth green jacket. Even with a win, his road to redemption won't end this weekend.

Tiger is arguably the best we've ever seen and without question the best we've seen since Jack. Even as a fresh-faced kid on the tour, he was always considered the best threat to catch Jack's miraculous 18 major wins.

He's never been happy as No. 2 in anything.

A win this weekend is a start, but it is far from the end. Major win No. 15 could very well be this weekend, but No. 18 is still out there.

Then and only then will Tiger be where he belongs.