Can Tiger Master all Four?

Augusta, Georgia, USA
Established 1934
Course(s) Augusta National Golf Club
Par 72
Yardage 7,445
Tour(s) PGA Tour
PGA European Tour
Japan Golf Tour
Format Stroke play
Purse $7,250,000 (Euro5,423,535)

The Masters for me is the beginning of the summer and I will be hooked to the next four days golf with my betting slip in hand. Those beautifully manicured greens remind you of the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, the players putting on the delicate services with the same respect, accuracy and reverence as Steve Davis and Cliff Thorburn. Like snooker, one twitch of the arm and you quickly groaning, the ball lipping the whole for that missed birdie like the pink rattling the jaws. It's a game of man against course, concentration over brawn - and Tiger Woods is the main man.

Today is more about muscle and kit than it ever was around the US Tour, tools of the trade smashing the ball 60 yards further than Jack Nicklaus ever could. This brings lesser guys into the equation for the Green Jacket, if they can hit it straight and putt well over the weekend. Last year the relatively unknown Zach Johnson (66-1) beat them all with that kit and some born again Christian clam. With these thick-headed power drivers, the course designers always try to beat the muscle of new technology by lengthening the holes some more, somehow.

The strongest of them all is Tiger Woods (11-10f), the four times champion already talking up his chances of doing the Grand Slam in the same year, an unheard of feat in the game. A win here would put Tiger second only to Jack Nicklaus six wins at Augusta and few are betting against him. Woods is closing in fast on Nicklaus all-time Major record and few seem up for the challenge to stop him. Jack had the great Arnold palmer to contend with, the two slugging it out with broadswords in the sixties and seventies too win the big prizes. Woods doesn't have that pressure and so has a free run this year and many more.

-Most player wins-

6 wins

Jack Nicklaus: 1963, 1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986

4 wins

Arnold Palmer: 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964
Tiger Woods: 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005

3 wins

Jimmy Demaret: 1940, 1947, 1950
Sam Snead: 1949, 1952, 1954
Gary Player: 1961, 1974, 1978
Nick Faldo: 1989, 1990, 1996

2 wins

Horton Smith: 1934, 1936
Byron Nelson: 1937, 1942
Ben Hogan: 1951, 1953
Tom Watson: 1977, 1981
Seve Ballesteros: 1980, 1983
Bernhard Langer: 1985, 1993
Ben

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