Fred Couples on Tiger Woods' Masters Practice Round: 'It Was Pretty Awesome'

Tiger Woods is set to compete in the Masters Tournament for the first time since 2015, and at least one former champion expects him to be a top contender.

"He's doing well," Fred Couples said of Woods after seeing him in a practice round Monday, per Bob Harig of ESPN.com. "If you watched him play today, there's not much of a back problem. He's hitting it a long way, and it looks beautiful. Today wasn't any different than it was 10 years ago when we played. It was pretty awesome."

Couples, Woods and Justin Thomas played nine holes together in a practice round at Augusta National Golf Club on Monday. The first two will be joined by Phil Mickelson and Thomas Pieters on Tuesday.

While Couples is the 1992 Masters champion and making his 33rd appearance at this event, all attention this week is on Woods.

The 42-year-old has struggled with back injuries the past couple of seasons and hasn't won a major since 2008. However, he appears to have returned close to the previous form we saw prior to the multiple setbacks.

The four-time Masters champion has been on a roll lately with back-to-back top-five finishes at the Valspar Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He has competed in five PGA Tour events this season, finishing in the top 25 in four of them.

According to OddsShark, this recent stretch has given him 9-1 odds to win this week at Augusta, tied with Rory McIlroy for the best odds of the field.

Considering Woods had 13 top-10 finishes at this event when healthy from 1997-2013, you shouldn't count him out this time around.