It's that time of year again. Yes, it's April. And the onset of April means another thing - The Masters. The time of the year when everyone becomes an avid golf fan. It's the weekend when those who consider golf "boring" find themselves excited to watch golf for three days. People model their green sport jackets, and some dig out their golf clubs from the attic.
The Masters stands as the biggest golf tournament of the year. The 2013 Masters Tournament will definitely not be one to disappoint.
The competition that will find itself putting, chipping and driving at Augusta National this week will fall nothing short of intense. The players of the PGA Tour are coming into the Masters ready to win. With such a title at stake, the players have evolved their own idiosyncratic ways of preparing themselves to do just that.
Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson both stand as veterans of the Masters. They've both found themselves wearing the green jacket at the end of the day with their own particular ways of preparing. Mickelson usually plays a tournament the week before the Masters (though this year he did not), while Tiger religiously takes the week off leading up to the big day.
Regardless, everyone is coming into the Masters prepared. With Tiger back at the No. 1 spot in the rankings, his chances of winning his fifth Masters are looking strong. His brilliant putting is just one facet of his game helping make Tiger the favorite. In the past 144 holes he has played, Tiger has made 35 putts longer than eight feet. Despite his 2009 scandal, Woods has found his place on the PGA tour again and looks to capture the Masters jacket this year, which would earn him his 15th major title.
Woods, though, is not without threats to his game. No. 3 ranked Justin Rose enters the tournament as a competitive force. The 32-year-old Englishman will perhaps play Augusta National much more under-the-radar than Woods, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a shot at winning his first Masters. In this past 2013 year, Rose has finished second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, eighth at the Cadillac Championship, and fourth at the Honda Classic. Clearly, he's got a chance to snatch that first-place finish.
With all this in mind, it's officially time for us as viewers to prepare for Masters ourselves. So, get your Polo shirts and country club attire ready to wear, hear that classic Masters music sounding through your ears, get ready for some legendary fist pumps and magical shots and anxiously anticipate Bubba Watson putting the Green Jacket on the 2013 Masters champion.
Contact Kit Loughran at kloughr1@nd.edu
The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
