Last-Minute Projections for Tiger Woods at the 2019 Masters

There have been times in recent years when it was questionable whether Tiger Woods would compete at a major again, let alone be in contention to win one.

Heading into the 2019 Masters, though, he is firmly among the favourites after his remarkable return to fitness and form in 2018:

He returned to the winner's circle at the Tour Championship in September and finished the Open and PGA Championship in the top 10.

As fellow golfer Tommy Fleetwood noted, per Ewan Murray in the Guardian: "If he wasn't Tiger Woods and you didn't know him, say he was a guy coming off the web.com Tour, you'd say: 'This is a guy who is gonna win at any time.'"

That is a worrying prospect for the field at the 2019 Masters.

Woods knows how to win at Augusta National. He already has four green jackets to his name, as well as nine more top-10 finishes.

The man himself also sounds confident going into the first major of the year:

At 43, Tiger would become the second-oldest Masters winner if he triumphs.

No player in their 40s has won a green jacket since Mark O'Meara won in 1998.

But Woods has made a career of setting new benchmarks, and any historical data counting against him will not concern him in the slightest.

What might stand in the way of his fifth Masters triumph is that he doesn't seem to be able to dominate like he once did.

In his heyday, if Tiger hit the front by the weekend, the rest of the field might as well have given up.

However, last year, he found himself at the top of the leaderboard on Sunday at the Open before letting the Claret Jug slip from his fingers:

Woods did, though, produce a remarkable final-round 64 to finish second to Brooks Koepka at the PGA Championship, proof he can still produce a sublime performance when it matters most.

Tiger no longer has the aura he once did; he can no longer see off the competition merely by getting to the top of a leaderboard.

But at world No. 12, he is the highest-ranked former winner in the 2019 Masters field.

And he has shown that he is back in a position to make a serious tilt for a fifth green jacket and 15th major title.

Projection for Tiger Woods at 2019 Masters: T3 finish at 11 under par.