Both Tiger and Phil very confident

The buzz on the course as well as in the locker room at the end of Tuesday’s practice day was that this really looks like being one of the most open Masters Tournaments for over a decade.

For the first time since 1997, Tiger Woods is not the favourite. He is 9-1 and second favourite to Phil Mickelson, who of course won on Sunday night.

Both came into the press conference within an hour of each other, looking very relaxed. There was a bit of Tiger-baiting, and some of the British tabloids wanted to know if he had any reaction to Ian Poulter’s earlier comments that he thought Tiger had “no chance” of finishing in the top-5.

“Poulter is usually right,” was his ironic reply.

“Back in Britain, we have a foul-mouthed footballer back in the UK called Wayne Rooney and he has been suspended for foul and abusive language. Would you like to see suspensions coming to golf for the same thing?” someone else wanted to know.

“You like to ask questions like that each and every year, don’t you?” Tiger said with a broad grin and then turned to the next question without more of an answer.

Reading between the lines, it is clear that Tiger fancies his chances this week, and likes the way his game is coming together, after re-building his swing with Sean Foley. Significantly, he said he still gets motivated by the thought of overtaking Jack Nicklaus’s 18 majors, and nodded when asked whether he thought he would achieve that goal.

Meanwhile, Phil has changed his practise plans because of the inclement weather. He was going to play 18 holes on Tuesday and then rest on Wednesday; but because the wind was so tough, he declined to go out on Tuesday and will now play 18 on Wednesday.

Mickelson said that the two shots he dreaded on the course were the tee shot on the 5th and the par-3 16th, both of which didn’t set up right for his swing. In contrast, he said he always looked forward to the second shot on the 13th (where he played that miraculous recovery shot last year) because the angle of the green suited his game perfectly.

“To win last week heading into here feels very good,” he said. “It reminds me a lot of 2006 when I was able to put it together the week before and carry the momentum through.”