Tiger's the Master

Helping hand: Harmon coaching a young Tiger Woods, at the 1995 Masters

Augusta suits Tiger Woods better than any golf course he could play. He knows it so well, so I think it would be very hard to bet against him.

Butch Harmon
Quotes of the week

"Can you imagine if Ian Poulter won the Masters?" - Butch Harmon

Well, no we can't, but it's got nothing do with the form and qualities of Poulter.

skysports.com spoke to Butch Harmon, the once upon a time coach of Tiger Woods and regular golf expert with Sky Sports. And there is only one place to start any interview about this year's US Masters. And it wasn't with Ian Poulter.

Most bookmakers will give you a price of even money for Tiger Woods to win the Masters this week. Because he lost the WGC CA Championship to Geoff Ogilvy a few weeks ago, those odds have gone out. Some more sensible betting houses have kept those odds at evens.

So does Butch seriously believe, Poulter aside, that Woods can be defeated at Augusta this week? Woods, argued to be the greatest golfer ever, won his first major at Augusta 11 years ago by a record margin of 12 strokes.

Since then he has won 12 more major titles, three of them at Augusta, and in his 11 attempts to win the Masters, on the seven occasions he failed, he has finished 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 8th and never lower than 22nd. As an amateur in 1996 he was once cut at Augusta, but he soon sorted that out a year later with that 12 stroke win in his first major appearance as a professional.

Tiger loves Augusta - he rules Augusta - and Harmon, the man who helped him win that first title in 1997, agrees it is the right place to start.

Favourite

"Well it would be hard to bet against him," he said. "He is obviously the odds-on favourite and he is playing as well as he has probably ever played in his life.

"The course suits him better than any golf course he could play. He knows it so well and the one thing that makes the Masters unique is that it is always at the same place. So I think it would be very hard to bet against him.

"Having said that there are a lot of great players that are playing pretty good at the moment so I think it is going to be a fun Masters but he is definitely going to be the odds-on favourite."

Very hard but not impossible and because just when Tiger looked like he might be unbeatable, he went and lost that CA Championship, a tournament he had won six times in nine years on a course, Doral, that Tiger enjoys almost as much as Augusta.

The challengers

So if not Tiger, then who? Harmon picks out a handful of names of the great and the good in golf right now, but not Ian Poulter... yet.

"You have to look at the guys that are on form at the moment," he said. "Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott. Talking about Europeans, Lee Westwood is playing very good golf, Padraig Harrington is starting to play very well again and it is really the players that are on form coming into the event.

"It was nice to see Retief Goosen play well at the CA Championship in Florida. He has never won the Masters, Ernie Els has never won the Masters, he is going through a little bit of a downside at the moment.

"I think you are going to see Vijay Singh have a pretty good Masters. He is playing well, he has gone back to the belly putter and I think he putts his best with it.

"Phil Mickelson is probably playing better than he has ever played in his life. His putting has been a little bit of a thing, it has held him back this year even though he hasn't won this year; he should have won at Phoenix but his putting let him down.

"He has been at Augusta on Monday and Tuesday of last week working on his putting with Dave Pelz, his short game instructor.

Adam Scott

"I think you are going to see Adam Scott have a good Masters, he has prepared well for it. He needs to win a major and he knows that. He has put a lot of pressure on himself to do that and he has the game to do it, now he has to step up to the plate and do it.

"This is the year for Adam Scott. He knows what is expected of him and he expects more of himself. He has put a lot of pressure on himself and I think that is good, I think we are going to see him have a good run at the majors."

So plenty of hopes from the top 10 in the world, but come on Butch, what about Poulter?

"I'd like to see some of the young Europeans step up to the plate," he says. "I'd like to see Poulter and Donald and Casey really elevate their games to the level of having a chance to win a major.

"I love Poulter; I think he is a breath of fresh air. Donald has it, Dougherty has it, they all have it. I think they are all good enough to win.

"Can you imagine if Ian Poulter won a Masters? What would that cover look like on the magazine?"

Indeed, could you imagine the trousers with the green blazer? And really, can you imagine that Zach Johnson will be sliding that blazer onto Poulter's frame and not Tiger Woods'? Nor can we, but you never know.