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 Northern Irish world number one McIlroy is gunning for his third
consecutive victory in a major, and a first green jacket at the
spiritual home of the American game, to complete a full set of all
four of golf's blue riband events.
Four-times champion Woods, meanwhile, only decided last week to
compete at Augusta National after struggling badly in his two
tournament starts this season, but has looked a very different and
relaxed player during practice over the past three days.
"Everyone is just curious to see how he comes back," McIlroy said
earlier this week about Woods' return to competition after a
two-month absence from the PGA Tour while retooling his swing.
"I don't think you should ever underestimate him. He's done things
on the golf course that are pretty special. As a golf fan in
general, I'm interested to see how he does."
Woods posted the highest score of his professional career, an
11-over 82, to miss the cut at the Phoenix Open in January, and
withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open the following week after 11
holes because of tightness in his back.
The former world number one, who claimed the most recent of his 14
major titles at the 2008 U.S. Open, said he would not return to
competition until his game was "tournament-ready" and many pundits
believe he is suffering from the chipping 'yips'.
However, last Friday he finally announced his decision to play in
this week's Masters.
"I feel like my game is finally ready to compete at this level, the
highest level," said Woods, who won the most recent of his four
green jackets at Augusta National 10 years ago.
"There's no other tournament in the world like this, and to come
back to a place that I've had so many great memories at and so many
great times in my life, it's always special."
GRAND SLAM BID
McIlroy, who tied for eighth at last year's Masters, arrives at
Augusta National looking to become the seventh career grand slam
winner following Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan, Bobby
Jones and Gene Sarazen.
"I've got a chance to do something very few players in this game
have done before so that adds a little bit of spice to it," said the
25-year-old, who won the 2011 U.S. Open, the PGA Championship (in
2012 and 2014) and the British Open (2014).
Though McIlroy is the pre-tournament favorite, the possibilities are
seemingly endless when it comes to likely winners after Sunday's
final round.
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The last eight editions have produced seven different champions,
with reigning champion Bubba Watson the only 'repeat' winner after
earning his first green jacket in 2012.
"To win it three times would be remarkable," the American
left-hander said of his bid to join the likes of Sam Snead, Gary
Player and Phil Mickelson by becoming the sixth triple champion at
Augusta.
"I never thought I would win it twice, so I can't believe that we
are talking about it ... three times. Pretty wild and pretty crazy
stuff."
Other contenders include Australia's Adam Scott, the 2013 champion
who has reverted to his long putter to cope with Augusta's
notoriously tricky greens, and Americans Jordan Spieth and Jimmy
Walker, who have been in red-hot form in recent weeks.
Swedish world number two Henrik Stenson heads the European challenge
with players from that continent bidding this week to end a 15-year
title drought at the Masters.
"There's a lot of guys who would rightly be in the real conversation
-- Rory, Dustin (Johnson), Jordan, Adam, Jason (Day) and Phil
(Mickelson),' said Australia's Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open
champion.
"Bubba is always one of the clear favorites here. And if Tiger plays
like he can, he's going to be one of the favorites. That adds
intrigue to the story, too. This has to be one of the best build-ups
to any tournament ever."
(Editing by Frank Pingue)
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