Green jacket tailor-made again for Mickelson

NINETY-THREE golfers tee it up in the Masters at Augusta National today and there is a growing swell of opinion that the winner can be narrowed down to the five leading players in the world.

Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen make up the so-called ‘Fab Five’, each playing well enough to suggest they will battle it out for the title. Simplistic? Of course it is. The Masters may not boast golf’s strongest field and still finds room for one-time superstars like Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, freakish former winners like Charles Coody, and amateurs such as Austin Eaton III and Luke List.

What place have such people when it comes to the business of challenging for one of golf’s greatest prizes? None.However, room has been found for the guys who really count.