Tiger Woods Favored To Win 2008 Masters Tournament

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

MASTERS: Can Tiger be tamed?

Tiger Woods (6:5) is the heavy favorite to win his fifth Masters tournament at Augusta, Georgia but don’t count out the rest of the field.

Click here for all the Masters’ odds and propositions.

Woods is the epitome of greatness, not only in golf, but the entire sporting world. He’s won 10 of the last 17 tournaments he’s played since last year’s Masters, and if he wins this event, he’ll have his 14th Major victory, putting him just four behind the legendary Jack Nicklaus for most all-time.

But, if you think Tiger is already being fitted for another Green Jacket, think again. There are a number of players who have the ability to challenge Woods, and you have to remember that his success ratio of winning Masters is just 36% since he first won in 1997.
The anti-Woods argument was best expressed by the fifth-ranked player in the World, Geoff Ogilvy. Ogilvy recently commented that Woods’ odds, at almost even-money to win, was “not far off the mark but I'd probably take even money on the field. I'd rather have 90 guys playing against Tiger for me. . . sounds fair”.
Looking at the rest of the board, you see Phil Mickelson next in line to win at 10:1. The 2006 Masters champion has seen his fortunes take a turn for the worse since he blew the 2006 U.S. Open.

Mickelson has not finished higher than 16th in the last six majors, missing the cut twice. He finished tied for 24th last year at the Masters, but his injuries are behind him and he’s ready to go for his third title at Augusta.

After Mickelson, there are a lot of players lumped in like Vijay Singh (15:1), Ogilvy (18:1), Retief Goosen (18:1) Ernie Els (25:1), Adam Scott (25:1), Jim Furyk (30:1), Padraig Harrington (30:1) and Steve Stricker (30:1).

One other player to watch for is defending champion, Zach Johnson. He shocked the field last year on his way to winning by two strokes over Woods, Goosen and Rory Sabbatini. That effort has apparently been forgotten by bettors as he is just 60:1 to muster a repeat performance.