Wednesday 8 April 2015 14:02, UK
Robert Lee believes this year's Masters has the potential to be one of the best editions of the tournament yet...
First the build-up was all about Rory, as since August he has been the story. He can be a 25-year-old career Grand Slam owner and if he wins here he’s three-quarters of the way to the ‘Rory Slam’ and having all four in a row, so I think that’s the bigger story than Woods returning.
It might actually do Rory a favour, because the media will split between following Tiger around the course or staying with McIlroy. I suspect it’ll be a bit of both, but I think It will help him because if Woods wasn’t here, all of the attention would have been on McIlroy.
Rory had a run of firsts and seconds in Europe, but it would have been impossible to keep that up. Results-wise, he has come off the peddle slightly in that they aren’t as unbelievable as they were, but if you look at the world rankings he’s still four points ahead of the next three. He’s emphatically the world No 1 and he’s there for a reason.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Woods gets on. Whether or not those short-game problems are still there, it’s going to be a challenge for Tiger. He knows that everyone’s watching him and even if he’s fixed, he’s only got to duff one chip and everyone’s going to go, ‘oh, he’s got the yips’. I don’t think it’ll be an easy tournament for him.
Competition
I don’t think Rory’s coming here thinking, ‘oh if only this is OK or that is OK’, he’s coming all guns blazing and thinking he has got a great chance of winning it. There are a lot of good players involved though and a lot of great potential American stories, with the likes of Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson.
There’s Bubba Watson too, who goes back as a two-time winner and defending champion, so I think it sets up for one of the best Masters ever.
My five to watch are McIlroy, Spieth, Reed, Johnson and Watson. Jordan was second last year and has been in great form just shy of this Masters. He’s stronger and longer than he was 12 months ago and has a lot of good things going well for him. Every time he does something wrong he addresses it, fixes it and I think he’ll play very well.
Dustin Johnson’s going to come here with stacks of confidence, as will Bubba and Reed. You try and pick the bones out that lot, it’s very difficult. You can chuck in Henrik Stenson and a lot of other guys, like Adam Scott and Jason Day. There are so many good players and plenty coming in to the Masters having played well in recent weeks.
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