Still the Tiger and Phil Show in Augusta?
It’s a great part of The Masters’ appeal that, for 75 years, things have gone down more or less the same way. And so, in a certain sense, fans – pardon, “patrons” – know what to expect when the players tee off at Augusta National on Thursday. The course will be immaculate and devilishly difficult. The scoreboard will be operated by hand. The announcers will whisper. And, when the weekend’s over, one of the players teeing off on Thursday will pull on a not-terribly-flattering green blazer and smile. Which brings us to one last way in which this year’s Masters resembles those that came before – no one really knows who that player will be.
At least this year we’re not dealing with the standard Tiger vs. the field discussion.The consensus, though, is that defending Masters champion Phil Mickelson looks like the favorite again this year, which would indeed make this year’s Masters like last year’s. “Mickelson is suddenly the reigning king of the place,” Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel writes. “He’s not just as the defending champion, either. For once, he’s the favorite over longtime nemesis Tiger Woods with both oddsmakers and, as much as it can be measured, the general mood of the place.”
Of course, there is one problem with this – until his victory in last week’s Houston Open, Mickelson hadn’t won anywhere since he last won at Augusta National. Tiger Woods, who has four green jackets to his name, would seem a decent pick as a favorite, had he not struggled so much of late while rebuilding his swing. And Tiger is still Tiger, whatever his swing looks like. “The debate about whether Woods is foolish to switch swing coaches — again — and tear down his game to its foundation at age 35 might miss the larger point,” the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell writes. “First, Woods has time — and a great deal of it — on his side. Second, as he has made clearer than ever here this week, his radical changes are more necessity than obsession.” At Slate, Michael Agger looks at Tiger’s recent stats and sees a player who is getting his groove back.
Greg Norman talking Tiger Woods swing Masters 2011