posted April 2, 2007 at 15:25 EST in Golf Articles

The first major tournament of the season returns to its historic and gentile home of Augusta, Georgia.  Thousands of lucky fans will descend on the hallowed ground of Augusta National Golf Club to join the thousands of azaleas and magnolias which will capture the action of the 2007 Masters Tournament.

 

Australian long-drive specialist Adam Scott won this Saturday’s Shell Houston Open by three stokes over fellow countryman and last-year’s Houston Open champion, Stuart Appleby.  However, while any Tour victory is an astounding accomplishment, it presents little forecasting value because most of the top-caliber players avoided Houston to prepare for the Masters.

Tiger Woods’ collapse three weeks ago at his old home course (Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida) was extraordinary – even alarming.  But his win the next weekend at Doral’s Blue Monster showed that he is still an emotional and mental giant on Tour.  Any talk of Masters’ favorites must begin with Woods. 

Tiger has played only four tournaments so far this season, but he won two of them (50% win rate!).  His #1 ranked 74% greens-in-regulation rate is part of the reason that he ranks 3rd in the FedEx Cup and enjoys the #1 All-Around Tour Statistical ranking.  Woods’ worst 2007 finish?  Twenty-second place at Bay Hill (Arnold Palmer Invitational).

Phil Mickelson won last year’s Masters.  This year, Mickelson ranks one spot behind Tiger in the FedEx Cup standings AND in the PGA’s All-Around Statistical ranking. 

Mickelson had a wonderful stretch this year in mid-February (winning Pebble Beach and finishing 2nd in the Nissan Open).  However, his last two Tour events resulted in finishes of 36th (Arnold Palmer Invitational) and 23rd (World Cup Championships – CA Championship).  Still, Mickelson cherishes The Masters and will certainly play some of his best golf of the season this weekend.

Heading into The Masters, Vijay Singh, John Rollins and Charles Howell III round out the rest of the top-five in the Tour’s All-Around ranking.  Singh has finished in the Masters’ top-eight each of the last five years (his 5th spot in ’05 being his top finish during that stretch).   

Rollins’ last Masters’ outing was in 2004, where he missed the cut.

Howell, an Augusta-native, failed to make the cut in ’05 and ’06.  However, he did finish a respectable 13th in 2004.  Howell’s March started out strong (6th at the PODS Championship) but his 56th-place finish at the Arnold Palmer was not the way he hoped to develop momentum heading into The Masters.

In last year’s Masters, Tim Clark finished behind Mickelson.  Chad Campbell, Tiger Woods and sentimental-favorite Fred Couples finished in a three-way tie for third.

Clark has not finished above 62nd in his last two Tour stops this season.  Faring slightly better this year, Campbell captured 9th-place at February’s Accenture Match-Play championship, but has missed a cut and finished no higher than 22nd in his last three outings.

Sentimental favorites are common at Augusta (consider Jack Nicklaus and Payne Stewart’s unlikely twilight wins and Couple’s challenge last year).  One player who may play that role this season is 49-year old Bernard Langer.  Though he missed two cuts in mid-March, he finished 9th in the Shell Houston Open and 10th in the Honda Classic in the first-weekend of March.  He holds the 11th-ranking in the PGA All-Around Statistic and is particularly good at sand-saves (something which could come in handy at Augusta).

 

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