AUGUSTA (Georgia), April 4: While this week’s Masters is one of the most anticipated in years with so many players bringing good form to Augusta National, Tiger Woods once again commands the spotlight.   

The former world number one has a renewed spring in his step after ending a 30-month title drought on the PGA Tour with a win at last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and is unquestionably the player to beat at a venue where he triumphed four times.

Woods has been installed as a 4-1 favourite by British bookmakers Ladbrokes to win his 15th major title on Sunday and he exuded a quiet confidence when he spoke to reporters after playing nine holes in practice on Tuesday.

“I certainly am excited about playing and really looking forward to getting out there,” the 36-year-old American said of Thursday’s opening round.

“I feel like I’m driving the ball much better than I have and my game is improving so everything is headed in the right direction at the right time.”

Woods, who won the most recent of his Masters titles in 2005, has always relished competing at Augusta National given its relative lack of rough and slick, heavily contoured greens which place a premium on a razor-sharp short game.

Woods’ victory at Bay Hill, his first in a full-field event since the 2009 Australian Masters, has given him a much needed jolt of confidence ahead of the year’s first major.

“It felt good to go out there and play as well as I did and under those conditions,” he said of his five-shot triumph at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

US Open champion Rory McIlroy and three-times Masters winner Phil Mickelson are among several top players competing this week who have produced good early season form.

If Woods can clinch his fifth green jacket on Sunday, he would draw level with Jack Nicklaus on 73 PGA Tour victories.

“I’d like the green jacket more,” Woods said. “I know the 73 would be a by-product of it, but I’m here for the green jacket.”—Reuters