Tiger Is Not Going To Win the Masters

What’s the difference between Tiger Woods and Santa Clause?... Santa stops at three Ho’s.

Okay I couldn’t help myself I just had to throw in a Tiger Woods Joke, but let’s get serious about Tiger’s chances to win the Masters. It’s not going to happen, and if he does win it will be the greatest sports achievement of the year maybe even the decade. Yeah, I know it’s only April of 2010. Think about it. Tiger Woods has gone through self-inflicted hell for the past 4 months. He has yet to play a competitive round of golf this year and some experts are predicting he’s going to wear the green jacket again this year, no freakin’ way. Sorry kids, but this isn’t going to happen, no storybook ending for this Tiger (not sure he deserves one right now). I know he has won four Masters, but even for Woods a win this year at Augusta is nothing short of superhuman. I don’t think anyone, including Tiger, can be away from the game so long with so much drama and win one of the biggest golf tournaments of the year. I will say that if he does win, he sure is going to make the other golfers look like a bunch of chumps who might as well start hitting from the ladies tees because Tiger owns you.

So how will Tiger do? Let me tell you. Tiger will struggle a bit on Thursday, come back on Friday to make the cut. There will be talk about how can tiger make up the 5 or so strokes he is behind, then on Saturday he will have a decent round and the talk will get even louder. At the end of the day on Sunday Tiger will finish about tenth. Anything higher than a tenth place finish is a great round for a guy who just crashed his car, got beat up by his wife (if not physically at least verbally), been to sex therapy, avoided millions of questions, and has been analyzed by every person in the world. Tiger should be happy for just making the cut, but you know he won’t be. He’ll end up saying he couldn’t make putts or that his driver was off, but we will all know that it much more than that. -Mark Mills

I Would Still Bet On Tiger Over Anyone Else.

If you are ever confronted with the opportunity to bet on any given golf player or the field…Don’t bet - it’s an addictive habit. But if you are already addicted - take the field. The cold reality is that every golf player loses much more often that he wins. Even as dominant as Tiger has been, his all time record at the masters is 4 out of 15. Currently Vegas is only giving him 1 in 5 odds to win.

All that being said, I would bet on Tiger over anyone else in this tournament. Let’s look at some statistics: Tiger holds the Master’s course record at -18. He also holds the record for the largest margin of victory: 12 strokes. He once shot an astonishingly good -22 in 45 holes. He has also set the record for the lowest back-to-back total for two rounds. Since 2005 he has only finished outside the top 3 once. Basically they should rename the course, the Tiger Woods invitational.

We have to remember that Tiger didn’t start cheating on his wife a year ago. Rest assured that when he won the U.S. open in 2008 he was sleeping around then. Is the stress of the paparazzi and media craze really going to be that much more stressful than living a double life? I’m not convinced.

Tiger’s absence from golf is much more worrisome. But we are talking about the most focused player ever. His determination and commitment to winning puts Jordan’s and Kobe’s to shame. I have never seen more of a true competitor. I’m sure he has been dreaming of demolishing his opponents ever since he left. Rest assured Tiger Woods will be in shape and ready to play.

The biggest deterrent to Tiger’s victory lap known as the masters will be his attempt to change his demeanor. Not screaming, swearing, and trash-talking might well throw him off his game. Of course a dead-silent, cold-blooded, determined Tiger would so intimidating that I wouldn’t worry about it. - M. Adam Tate