[Beanie]

A few quick thoughts then, on the course, on Tiger(since he makes up half the market), and on the rest...

Course - significantly lengthened 2 years ago so well worth giving the results of 2006 and 2007 more significance than the others - changes means that the course lends itself to the big hitters. A bit of moisture in the air, as has usually been the case, and those that can boom off the tee will gravitate towards the top of the leaderboard. Last year the weather was very dry, the greens therefore less receptive, and so accuracy to the green became more important and the big hitters struggled a little more than usual, and so the weather forecast could again be quite important.

Debutants tend to suffer(as muze points out) - as much as they can prepare all week - there are so many little nooks and crannies lying in wait that its no surprise that most, if not all, will get caught out with a double bogey or two somewhere along the way, and so are perhaps best avoided this week.

Tiger - Form, check. He comes into this having won 7 of his last 8 tournaments, and wasn’t too far away in the other. His scoring average is almost half a shot better than it’s ever been, and his mental game looks as solid as ever, battling to narrow early wins to take the Matchplay Title and nailing a 25ft putt at the 18th to pip Bart Bryant to the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The only blip so far this year has been at Doral in the World Championships, where finishing in 5th, 2 shots shy of Geoff Ogilvy.

And for the Masters, it’s perhaps this result that is of the most significance – despite some fairly resigned chat from rivals in the run up, and particularly a couple of rounds in where Tiger was joint leader, there was some pretty big words being thrown about – unbeatable, inhuman, invincible – Geoff Ogilvy’s win – or Tiger’s inability to push on and win after round 2, shows that he is none of those things. Brilliant, masterful, breathtaking, yes…unbeatable, no.

More than anything, I think what Doral showed is that its important to remember that while Tiger is the true great of the game at the moment – there remain many other big time winners, superbly gifted golfers who have been there and done it before and who won’t fold if they see Tiger’s name appear up there alongside them on Sunday. Doral had virtually everyone who’s anyone teeing up(minus Harrington). More about them later, but it’s important to put his run into some perspective – as awesome as it is, it is not against this class of field every week, and so this will be by far his sternest test.

Course record, check. 2,3,1,22,15,1,1,5. He hasn’t shown any ill effects to the lengthening of the course 2 years ago, and had the weather remained better he would likely have earnt a 4th green jacket last year. It’s also worth noting that he comes into this years’ tournament in better form than in either of the last two years: the only comparable season is 2001 where he went on to win here by 12. On this course, if the weather continues to favour the longer hitters on this course, I can’t see any negatives.

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Price – with the above all taken into account, you could make a case for him being odds on IMO – he has the game and the form to get into contention, and the mentality to close it out.

At 2.36, my clicking finger would be gravitating towards the ‘back’ button rather than the ‘lay’ button, but as much as everyone has their price, backing someone at near evens in a 90+ runner golf tourney always feels a bit alien. More so here, as the field is absolutely stellar - a field crammed full of major winners and emerging stars who have the ability to do something special, and so to really understand that price, a look at the other 93 is needed.