Who'll win the Masters?

GOLF: Here's why players need to set their sights on competing against Tiger Woods.

They will be there "" all the great players "" many of them with their personal coaches (to make minor corrections/adjustments to their swings every evening, after play). Their caddies, an inseparable part of every player, will be quietly present. I wonder whether any of the players will have a caddie such as the inestimable Bagger Vance?

Many of them will come dreaming of Phil Mickelson (last year's and the present reigning champion) placing the Green Jacket on their shoulders and mentally preparing their victory speech.

Each knows they can falter; each knows the others can falter too; each knows the first hurdle is to make the cut. Only the top 44 plus ties plus those within 10 strokes of the leader make the cut. Each year several great players and past major winners fail to make the cut (as they say, "they take the weekend off").

Each knows that a first round disaster can still yield a victory (Craig Stadler in 1982 had an opening round of 75). Each player would like to be a wire-to-wire winner such as Craig Wood (1941), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972) and Raymond Floyd (1976).

Nobody is worrying about amateurs because no amateur has ever won.

There are players from 35 countries in contention from Europe/ Asia/ Australia/USA and North America/ South America/ China/ Korea/ Fiji/ South Africa and, of course, India, among others.

All recent Master Champions can expect to win; all recent major winners may certainly also expect to win; anybody else in the top 20 or top 50 has a pretty good chance if they hit the zone during this week. Multiple major winners have a particular edge because they are used to winning and can handle the pressure.

There are many young and extremely aggressive players who have won all over the world and are capable of beating any player on a given day. Witness Tiger Woods being beaten by Paul Casey/ Henrik Stenson (of "Swing from the Wing" fame) recently in international events and, of course, Tiger Woods losing early in the Accenture match play event.

Many potential winners are top of the mind such as Els, Mickelson, Weir, Ogilvy, Rose, Casey, Donald, Stenson, Harrington, Furyk, Clarke, Goosen, Woods, Singh, and so many others. Jeev?

All of them are terrified of the extremely fast glass-like greens (some can read 13 or 14 on the stimp meter). Even World No 1. Tiger Woods has been two on the green and three in the water when he misjudged the speed of a putt.

So many other things can happen; it may rain excessively and cause a complete change in playing conditions (try hitting a ball with mud on one side of the ball); it may be blistering hot, causing the fairways and greens to be so hard that excellent shots end up in trouble; it may be very gusty, which could cause well hit shots to drift into the pine woods or, god forbid, hold the ball up in the air to drop gently into Rae's Creek at Amen Corner.

Some time ago, Tiger Woods was so far ahead of everybody that they all had to work hard on their physical and mental strengths to approach his level of fitness. Just as Woods began to look vulnerable and sportscasters were doubting his longer term potential, Woods raised the bar another few notches.

Having won 40 per cent of the tournaments he has entered (eight of them consecutively, and he does not enter many tournaments these days), and being the World No. 1 by such a huge margin, he has to be the one to beat.

Instead of focusing on anybody else such as your playing partner for the day, everybody should really focus on Tiger Woods, because if they can best Tiger Woods then, of course, they will have bested the rest of the field. That is going to be tough because you have to remember that in his first Masters win (1997) Woods broke 20 records and tied six others. He has improved since then.

Despite wishing that Jeev Milkha Singh wins, the hot money will surely be on Tiger Woods.