Masters Favorites 2013: Breaking Down Flaws In Top Golfers' Games

Tiger Woods is the biggest favorite heading into the 2013 Masters, but he won't win the green jacket if he can't hit the ball straight off the tee. 

Woods isn't the only favorite with a potentially fatal flaw, either.

Every golfer getting ready for the monumental challenge that is Augusta National Golf Club brings strengths and weaknesses to the table. 

In this column, we'll take a look at the biggest weaknesses for the top three favorites heading into the 2013 Masters—the first major men's golf tournament of the calendar year. 

Tiger Woods: 7/2 Odds to Win

A four-time winner of this tournament, Woods has entered just five PGA tournaments this season, winning three of them.

He's the only golfer on tour to win more than one tournament, and he's won the last two tournaments he entered—not to mention he was a member of one of the teams that earned a first-place tie at the Tavistock Cup. 

Woods has been phenomenal this season, but he hasn't been particularly accurate off the tee. In terms of driving accuracy, Woods ranks No. 145 on tour, hitting the fairway just 55.8 percent of the time. 

If Woods can't hit his driver straight at Augusta, he'll be fighting an uphill battle the entire way. Bad tee shots usually result in harder approach shots which usually results in longer putts. 

And while Woods has been stroking in putts from all over greens this season (No. 1 on tour in terms of strokes gained with the putter), the greens at Augusta are particularly beastly. One inch on the wrong side of a break and he'll be lucky to even be on the green.

If Woods manages to hit fairways more often than not, his excellent ball-striking will give him plenty of chances to gain strokes on the greens. If not, he'll struggle to make the cut. 

Rory McIlroy: 8/1 Odds to Win

If Woods struggles with his driver, then McIlroy engages in epic battles with his. 

McIlroy has never placed higher than a tie for 15th place at the Masters, but he's won two majors in the past two seasons and is one of the up-and-coming players on the men's tour. 

After withdrawing from the Houston Open, McIlroy bounced back to log an eighth-place finish at the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship and then registered a tie for No. 45 at the Shell Houston Open. 

His game goes hot and cold, but even when he's hot, McIlroy has one weakness than causes him no shortage of grief: He can't hit the ball straight off the tee. 

McIlroy crushes the ball. He ranks No. 1 on tour with an average tee shot of 310.8 yards per drive.

That said, he hits fairways just 53.17 percent of the time (No. 160 on tour). 

In terms of total driving, the stat that factors in both driving distance and accuracy, McIlroy ranks No. 180. 

That's bad. 

If McIlroy has one of his bad weeks with the driver, we might see a repeat of McIlroy vs. Augusta, when Augusta beat him so badly he was cut. 

Phil Mickelson: 10/1 Odds to Win

Mickelson has played some darn good golf this season, winning one tournament, placing third in another and missing just one cut out of nine tournaments. 

Lefty knows this course, and he's got the game to contend for the green jacket every single year. 

He's won at Augusta three times—in 2004, 2006 and 2010—and has placed in the top 10 an astonishing 12 times, including nine of his last 10 appearances. 

Like Woods and McIlroy, Mickelson struggles with accuracy off the tee.

That said, Mickelson's greatest flaw is also what makes him great—he's always looking for perfection. 

Winning at Augusta sometimes requires a more conservative approach than Mickelson's normal, go-for-broke mentality. 

He's so confident in his ability to hit masterful shots that sometimes he rides a razor's-edge line of genius and madness. When he's on, he is a magnificent maestro who works wonders. When he's off, Mickelson can make you cringe.

If Lefty can manage to not shoot himself in the foot at Augusta, he could come home with his third career green jacket. 

Note: All odds are courtesy of the AP, and all stats are courtesy of PGATour.com.

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