Behold, it is finally Masters week! With arguably the greatest week in golf upon us, we decided to do something a little different this week. We are going to profile four of the "favorites" heading into the tournament. Today we'll profile 2 American favorites: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Tomorrow, we'll take a look at the 2 UK favourites: Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald. Off we go!
Name: Tiger Woods
Age: 36
World Ranking: 7
Major Titles: 14 (4 Masters)
Finish Last Year: T-4
What he needs to do to win: To win his 5th green jacket, Tiger needs to do something at Augusta he hasn't done since 2005- putt well. The guy is always in contention here it seems, always hitting the ball well enough to win, but the putter goes haywire somehow. If you look at last year, his back 9 putting did him in. If he can putt like he did at Bay Hill, and hit the ball like he has all year, then there's no doubt in my mind that Tiger will be slipping on the green jacket by the end of Sunday.
What can go wrong: The first, most obvious thing that can go wrong with Tiger is his putting. One short missed putt can send him in a free fall in terms of his confidence, and then he'll be out of contention before we know it. He is just regaining confidence that he can win against a full, world class field, so if he were to lose any confidence, he'd be in a lot of trouble. Tiger also needs to not put any more added pressure on himself. Yes, he's always going to have a ton of pressure on him, but there's no need for him to add anymore high expectations. If he can stay patient and confident this week, he'll be fine.
Predicted Finish: The way he's playing, a top-5 finish should be a lock, and if he can get the putter going, he'll definitely win.
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