Tigers Woods: Back To Master The Masters
By James Raia
www.golftribune.com

With all due respect to the 15 PGA Tour tournament winners this year — Tigers Woods to Y.E. Yang, Phil Mickelson to Michael Bradley — the season the players anticipate the most hasn't begun. But it will this week when The Masters unfolds at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.

The first of the PGA Tour's four major championships will be played for the 73rd time on the historic course recently elevated to a plateau where many believe it had already arrived. According to the new issue of Golf Digest, the host layout of The Masters since its debut in 1934 is the No. 1-ranked course in the United States.

Golf course comparisons are fine for magazine promotions and players' banter. But the Masters often progresses without lofty designations as golf at its finest.

Beyond its usual keen competitions, The Masters will also have and unusual amount of sub-plot this year.

The golf world last viewed Tigers Woods at a major last June at the U.S. Open. He hobbled around Torrey Pines and defeated vast underdog Rocco Mediate in a Monday playoff that extended to 19 holes and arguably became the greatest PGA Tour tournament round in history.

It was also Woods' last round prior to knee surgery and his eight-month PGA Tour absence. He returned last month to compete in the first of his three tournaments this season at the World Golf Championships.

Woods won his 66th PGA Tour events two weeks ago at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and he'll be vying for his 15th major championship victory, three shy of Jack Nicklaus' record, in The Masters.

“As I look back at my three tournaments I've played this year, I've gotten better at each one, and that was the whole idea was to keep progressing to Augusta,” Woods said following his second straight win in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “I was hoping I could get my game where I could feel hitting shots again because I'd been only on the range and putting at home.”

Woods' return will gather the most attention at The Masters, and that's fine with Padraig Harrington. If Woods weren't in the field, it would be Harrington in the brightest spotlight. The Irish golfer will be competing for his third straight major victory, following triumphs at the 2008 British Open and 2008 PGA Championship.

Harrington's success in majors (he also won the 2007 British Open) and his quest for the third straight major title has been dubbed the “Paddy Slam.” Harrington hasn't won on the PGA Tour since his PGA Championship title last August. Two weeks ago, he finished 11th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his best finish this season.

“I'm happy enough with my game,” said Harrington, who if victorious The Masters would join Woods and Ben Hogan as the only players to claim three consecutive majors. “I'm obviously working on trying to peak for next week (at the Masters). I'm hoping the form will be good enough this week that it will get me into contention, and, you know, you never know what can happen when you're in contention.”

The Masters field, the smallest of the major championships, will also include more than a dozen other former Masters titlists, including defending titlist Trevor Immelman. With his three-shot win over Woods, Immelman became the first Masters winner since Raymond Floyd in 1976 to lead the tournament after each round.

Gary Player will also extend his Masters longevity streak to 53 years. Player, 73, who won the first of his three Masters titles in 1961, has played 162 rounds at the tournament and last made the cut in 1998.