2013 Masters Preview

Tiger Woods - clearly the man to beat.

I will try not to mention his name as we all know he is the heavily deserved favourite. There are three other players though who may not be household names like Phil Mickelson or Rory McIlroy, who I think have a very good chance of finishing high up the leaderboard on Sunday night.

 

Bill Haas may have a more illustrious father in Jay, but his form this year makes me think that he has a very good chance at finishing in the top five at Augusta. Haas has played eight tournaments this year, has made seven cuts, four top tens, and one top three. That sort of consistency makes him a threat for the Masters. Haas is listed 6^th on the PGA Tour this year in greens in regulation, and 21^st in eagles/hole. These two stats make me believe that Haas will be able to hit greens and sink a couple of eagles throughout the week to put him in contention.

 

Olesen is on track for a high finish at
this years first major.

Thorbjorn Olesen. Yes that Danish golfer who none of us have heard of. This is a golfer who may take Augusta by storm this year. Olesen has been having a very good year, having a T2 and a T3, and is yet to miss a cut. Olesen is driving over 300 yards this year, giving him good opportunities on the par 5’s at the Georgia layout. In his two majors last year, he finished a very respectable T9 and T27th, giving confidence that he will not only make the cut, but go one further and secure a top five finish.

 

The final player who may not be so obscure, but I think if, 'you know who' doesn’t win this year, this is our man. Louis Oosthuizen is a player who finished runner up last year and was very unlucky not to win. Remember Bubba's 9 Iron? Oosthuizen has only played four tournaments this year, but his form has been very good. Yet to miss a cut and a win under his belt, I can only assume the lack of tournaments this year (four to date), is due to an extensive preparation for Augusta to go one better than last year.

Is Tiger Woods Back?

Is it only a matter of time before this becomes a
familiar site again?

I’m sure you’ve heard enough of people slanging Tiger Woods over the last few years. He has given us enough ammunition to last a lifetime but with all this behind him (we assume so anyway), is it time that Tiger will get back on the winners podium? His last five tournaments have seen him finish 3^rd (Australian Open), 1^st (won the Presidents Cup with USA), 1^st (Chevron World Challenge), T3 (Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship), and T15 (Pebble Beach Pro-am).

Sure, many of you will look at those last five tournaments and say, well the Australian Open isn’t a quality field, the Presidents Cup is a team event and the Chevron World Challenge is Tigers own event. So the only really good result is the T3 in Abu Dhabi. There were many top players in those fields, and Tiger only controls his own destiny (bar the Presidents Cup obviously!), so to have a snipe about his opposition is completely unfair.

Tigers next tournament is the WGC Accenture World Match Play. Unfortunately, with his inconsistency over the last couple of tournaments (especially when it counts), I can’t see him winning this tournament. All it takes to lose is one bad round, or coming up against a 64, which Tiger hasn’t shown he has a full 18 holes of quality yet. In saying this though, I do think he’ll progress to the last eight/four and this will only spur him on with the Masters in sight.

Is this man going to do this decade what Tiger did at the
beginning of the last decade? i.e. go berserk.

Although the depth of world golf may be at its peak over the last five years, apart from Rory McIlroy, it is hard to see someone going head-to-head with Tiger, when Tiger does start to show some consistency. I can see Tiger winning at least three tournaments this year (assuming he stays healthy), including a major along the way. If he continues to find himself amongst the lead on Saturday night, expect Tiger to rediscover some of his winning mentality, and that may be all it takes to break the shackles.