Golf-Player likes Mickelson, and McIlroy, for Augusta (Reuters)

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

AUGUSTA, Georgia, April 4 (Reuters) – Golfing great Gary
Player regards holder Phil Mickelson as the favourite for this
week’s U.S. Masters but he also has “a feeling” Ireland’s Rory
McIlroy will flourish in the season’s opening major.

American left-hander Mickelson shortened his odds on
winning a fifth major title with a three-shot victory at the
Houston Open on Sunday while McIlroy is viewed by many as a
future world number one.

“Phil Mickelson winning yesterday is a very significant
thing,” Player, 75, told Reuters at a sun-splashed Augusta
National on Monday. “It’s given him coming in here a big
psychological lift.

“He’s got to be saying: ‘I’m going to win.’ It’s a feeling
you get and it’s a positive feeling that you have and either
you have it or you don’t. It’s not something you can say you
manufacture. It’s a gift.

“Without a question Phil is the favourite right now.”

However South African Player singled out the 21-year-old
McIlroy as his pick for success this week.

“Rory McIlroy is so talented,” said the nine-times major
champion. “I’ve got a feeling about him. I don’t know why.

“He is ready to come through. I just love the way he plays
golf. However we don’t know how he will rise to the occasion if
he comes down the line (on Sunday) and he’s leading.

“You never know who has got what I call the ingredients.
The swing is not the thing. It’s what’s inside that makes you
win. You don’t know if you have it until you are tested.”

McIlroy is yet to win a major title but the world number
nine is one of the most exciting players in the game with his
high ball flight and ability to shoot very low numbers.

The mop-haired Irishman catapulted into the limelight with
a stunning maiden PGA Tour victory at last year’s Quail Hollow
Championship, where he won by four strokes after firing a
course record 10-under-par 62 in the final round.

TIGER’S PROSPECTS

Player, who was one of golf’s so-called ‘Big Three’ with
fellow greats Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer in the 1960s, was
less certain about Tiger Woods’s prospects this week.

The American former world number one, who has lifted the
prized green jacket on four occasions at Augusta National, has
slipped to seventh in the rankings and has not triumphed
anywhere since the 2009 Australian Masters.

“I am surprised he has not won since then but his swing has
been out of kilter,” Player said of 14-times major champion
Woods, who began working on the fourth swing change of his
career last August after the break-up of his marriage.

“He’s been to quite a few different (swing) coaches and I
think that’s the thing you’ve got to be careful, that you don’t
get paralysis by analysis. Change is okay as long as you’re
making the right change.

“Particularly over the last year, I have noticed quite a
few flaws in his swing, in my opinion. But golf is like
genetics. You know a hang of a lot about nothing.”

Player, a three-times Masters champion, felt Woods was
still capable of enhancing his reputation as the greatest
scorer of all time.

“Of all the super stars that I have seen, Tiger Woods was
on his way to being the best scorer that ever lived,” he said.
“The best player that ever lived was Ben Hogan. But that’s not
what they pay you for. They pay you for a score.

“Golf is a humbling game and you don’t know if it (form)
will come back. But I’ve always said if anybody was going to
break (Jack) Nicklaus’s record (of 18 majors) it would be
Tiger.

“It’s food for thought now. Will he do it? The man is very
focused and he has a passion, but you don’t know what happening
inside. You can give an opinion but none of us really know.”

The 75th Masters starts on Thursday.
(Editing by Frank Pingue; To query or comment on this story
email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)