Augusta awaits

SO, no-one but Tiger can possibly win the Masters, and the World No 1 will not be stuck on an unlucky 13 Majors for long after that. All things being equal, there will be at least one more such title to add to his collection in 2007 with the word on the street being that Oakmont and Carnoustie, US Open and Open venues respectively, will both be very much to his liking.

Some even think this could be the year of a Tiger Grand Slam.

Or at the very least a second Tiger Slam, since a fifth Green Jacket next month would leave just (!) the US Open in June to grant him simultaneous ownership of all four Major titles. There are real echoes of 2001, when the 31-year-old entered the season on the back of three successive Major wins and promptly made it four at Augusta.

Given the most recent evidence, namely at Hoylake last July and at Medinah a month later, it is hard to escape the conclusion that a repeat performance is imminent.

On both occasions, Tiger did not so much blow away the field as dismember them limb by limb. It was not so much predatory as clinical. This was not the Tiger of the turn of the millennium, drowning his rivals in a tidal wave of birdies; it was assessing before the event had even begun what was required to win it then putting that plan ruthlessly into action.

But even given how comfortably Open No 3 and USPGA No 3 were added to the collection, it is worth remembering just how quickly things can change in golf.

Remember that, as recently as last June, a moment before the halfway point of the 2006 Major season, Phil Mickelson stood on the 18th tee at Winged Foot needing a par to set up a Mickel-slam attempt at Royal Liverpool. While Tiger, albeit in mitigating circumstances, had just missed his first Major cut as a professional.

What followed after Mickelson had hacked his way up the last hole was certainly a turning point in his own season, and quite possibly one of wider significance. Lefty was not a factor for the rest of the season while Woods was able to regain his aura of complete dominance during one hazy, dusty week on the Wirral coast.

Since then, his worst finish ­ excluding a first-round exit to Shaun Micheel in the now-moribund HSBC Matchplay ­ has been a tie for third at last month's Dubai Desert Classic. And that, coupled with Tiger's extraordinary Augusta record, is why it is impossible to see past him coming out on top once again next month.

The 31-year-old has played in 10 Masters as a professional, winning four times, posting a further three top-10 finishes and has a worst performance of 22nd. Augusta, like the Old Course at St Andrews, might have been made for him. As every year goes by, and the yardage increases, it becomes even more so.

That is not just because Tiger has such reserves of power, though he does, but because of the additional emphasis on the short game and on long putting. These are two more areas at which he is simply head and shoulders above the competition.

As Darren Clarke said: "If you're going for the flags at Augusta you must find the right portions of the greens. Otherwise you are better off missing them altogether. It's much better to have a chip sometimes than a putt from the wrong side of the green.

"At the 15th, for example, you can be on the green in two but have almost no chance of making birdie," he said.

The longer Augusta becomes, the better you have to be coping with the notorious greens. For pros of the highest calibre, finding the correct portion of a green to leave a manageable putt is not so difficult with a nine iron; but doing the same with a five iron is a different matter.

It is not just a case of accuracy either. Long irons do not necessarily bounce once then stop dead like wedges do. And sometimes, once a ball trickles down a shelf, it runs another 60 feet before eventually stopping. The pressure of knowing the margin for error is so small wears many down.

But if there is anyone capable of getting up and down having short-sided himself, or of two-putting from, say, the back of the 9th green when the pin is cut at the front, that man is Tiger.
Part 2