US MASTERS:OUTSIDE THE sacred gates of Augusta National Golf Club, a piece of terrain in an idyllic world of its own, life on Washington Road is a good deal more stressful. PHILIP REIDreports from Augusta National
Traffic clogs the principal artery of this hub town of east Georgia, a road lined with fast food joints and fundamentalist churches and advertisements for everything from chiropractors to divorce attorneys to one, by a woman - we presume - called Angel, offering psychic readings "past and present".
Nobody needs a psychic gift to know the recent past of the US Masters. It is dominated by two men: one called Tiger, the other called Phil. Last year's win by Zach Johnson was an aberration that - temporarily? - interrupted the modern-day rivalry of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who between them have won five of the last seven Masters. The future, we're led to believe, is for more of the same.
Now, we're back on familiar ground. Tiger or Phil? Phil or Tiger? But, but, but . . . is it really just about two men? Did last year's exciting disregard for logic which saw three first-time major winners in Zach Johnson (the Masters), Angel Cabrera (the US Open) and Pádraig Harrington (the British Open) not teach us anything? Are there not others lurking in the high grass, waiting to pounce and claim their place in history?
What of proven major winners like Vijay or Retief?
The reality, like it or not, is that Woods has returned to his favourite course in the form of his life: and that's saying something.
And, sure, you've got to believe that if anyone is capable of winning the Grand Slam - a feat that has eluded all of the game's greats - he is the man.
As usual, he is the man to beat. As usual, he is the man with the hottest form on the planet.
The other day he was asked if the expectations of everyone weighed on him. "No, actually, it doesn't, because I play for myself and my family. That's it. That's what my father always said to me and that's what I've always done," replied Woods.
Yet, there is a sense that everyone at Augusta - in the bleachers, on the manicured banks by greenside - is putting the cart before the horse. No matter how well you know this course, no matter how favourable it has been to you, the future is not predetermined.
Yes, experience is a help, but even Woods agreed that "you have to keep evolving because the golf course keeps changing. They keep changing the greens, the fairways, the tee angles. You know, there's little subtle changes and you have to mark that down and put it in your memory bank."
As Ernie Els, who has changed coaches from David Leadbetter to team-up with Butch Harmon, observed with raised eyebrows of Wood's near odds-on status to win, "In professional sport these days, that's taking it very far". In other words, Els feels the odds are with the field.
For the past few days of practice, the course has played soft and long. Yesterday, though, the sun broke through the grey sky cover that had clouded Monday and Tuesday and the forecast is for sunny weather for at least the opening two days. In short, the course will play harder and faster come tee-time, just as the green jackets would want it.
Mickelson, for one, wouldn't be surprised if the winning score, just as it was a year ago, turns out to be over par.
"I think it might be higher (than 2007)," argued Mickelson. "Length (is now) the biggest factor . . . also, (adding) all of the trees and tightening the course. Scores won't be lower."
Harrington, who has been thinking about this tournament for the best part of seven months, and who has introduced some changes in recent weeks designed to aid his quest for a green jacket, believes the tournament committee will get whatever winning total they want.
"If they want us to shoot 65, we'll shoot 65 out there. If they want us to shoot no better than 70, we won't break 70. If they set those pins up one way, we'd make eagles and birdies all day. If they set them up another way, par would be a good score.
"They have the ultimate control. They have the length, they can soften it, firm it up. They can change the pin positions. They can do anything they need to do," argued Harrington.
Indeed, an indication of how much the course has changed since Harrington's first appearance in 2000 is that he hit lobwedge into the 18th green back then.
"Now it is a four-iron. It is not meant to be a drive and flick. They've made the golf course what I grew up watching on TV," said the Dubliner. "It's back to the way it was meant to be, a stern test. They want to make it tough physically so that the right mental side comes through, that patience and fortitude and all the good things you need to win are there."
Patience? Fortitude? Nobody has exemplified those attributes better over the past decade than Woods, a four-time winner. Sure, he deserves to be favourite.
But it is not a foregone conclusion. If he's to win, he'll have to beat the course and everyone else.
"He's a freak, in a good way," said defending champion Johnson of the man most likely to be the recipient of the green jacket come Sunday evening.
Tiger's been talking the talk, now it is time to walk the walk.
