Following a red hot start to the season that saw him retake the number one overall ranking, Tiger Woods is the main favorite to take the green jacket at the Masters, the first major of the year on the PGA Tour that begins on Thursday at Augusta National in Georgia.
Woods will get his day started in the first round at 10:45 along with Luke Donald and Scott Piercey, while Rory McIlroy will get started later in the day. Woods is looking to win his first major since 2008 and would earn his 15th career championship with another green jacket at Augusta. Woods has won four times in the past and he will have a tough field of 93 golfers, including Phil Mickelson, who will be playing with Martin Kaymer.
Mickelson has unveiled his strategy for the tournament ahead of the Par 3 contest, saying that he plans to use a modified three wood as his driver on Thursday. Mickelson has won the major three times, the last coming in 2010 and he has already won once on tour this year earlier in the season at Phoenix. He started preparing at Augusta over the weekend and even found time to work in a round with Conoleezza Rice on Sunday.
Mickelson last played in the Houston Open and mentioned the club and sad that it could help add distance to his shots. Mickelson has won 41 times in his career on the PGA Tour and he has a nice amount of success in recent years at Augusta, finishing in the top 10 in all but two years since 2000. Bubba Watson is the defending champion and although winning back to back would be a nice story, no golfer has done that apart from Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Jack Nickalus.
Amazingly enough, the past 17 majors have been won by 16 different golfers and Woods has not won one since 2008 at the US Open. Any player that is looking to win should probably try to lose the Par 3 Contest on Wednesday, as no player has won the Masters after taking the event. Tiger Woods will not have to worry about that, as he traditionally does not play in the tournament, while McIlroy will have his girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki on his bag and Watson will have his wife on his.
