US Masters / Bill Elliott / 17 March 2009 /

With the Big One due to start in Augusta in only a few weeks, Bill Elliott wonders what last weekend's World Championship event told us about who might be in contention.

So now we know. And what we know is that Tiger is heading in the right direction, that Rory is like every other teenager (he gets tired) and that Phil can still play terrifically even when feeling not so terrific.

Other things to come out of Doral last weekend include the thought that, quietly, Oliver Wilson is maturing into what looks to my old eye a genuinely special player, that Alvaro Quiros already is a special talent and that Ernie Els is indeed improving. I think.

Whether this is exactly how it will seem when the Big One starts at Augusta in a few weeks remains to be seen but for now and from this distance the Masters is even more intriguing than usual and that's saying something.

Sport, any sport, thrives on narrative and plot lines and right now big-time golf has more of these than the average Jeffrey Archer book. We can only hope that golf writes them more elegantly. What seems certain is that the 2009 Masters is in prospect the most open Masters of the last decade.

So what have we learned about the main man? Well, Woods has come through his first 72 hole strokeplay event for nine months looking a lot like the inspired bloke who thrilled us all at last year's US Open. Any small doubt I had about his ability to swiftly return to the old magical ways is not largely erased.

Of course he is still a little ring-rusty, especially on and around the greens but Tiger's game improved with every round played at this latest World Championship week. You could see that he now has total confidence in his left leg because his driving was seriously impressive. There was no holding back and there was an awful lot of accuracy as well, far more certainly than we've seen over the last few years.

He will now be the favourite for the Masters but whether he will actually win it is more debateable. After all, he won his last Green Jacket four years ago. He has, however, contended in every one since then. No-one has a better claim to the 2009 blazer than him so, after all the debate, no change there then.

Meanwhile Mickelson is, as usual, thriving through the West Coast swing. This is how it always is with The Great Lollop. Something like 80 per cent of Phil's career wins have been constructed in the first four months of each season. He always has been one of the main men to back during this period and the main man to discard from June onwards.

He says he is going into Augusta playing the golf of his life and his performance at Doral suggested that he may even be telling the truth. Problem is that no-one knows - especially Mickelson - what game he will bring to Georgia. The power of Tiger is his relentless quality whereas the attraction of Phil is his consistent unpredictability, hardly an asset when it comes to laying down money but at least you get a thrill for your money.

McIlroy has not been around long enough for anyone to offer an accurate guide to his game. Clearly he has been on a seriously upward trek since the middle of last summer but logic dictates that eventually there has to be some reaction to all the effort, excitement and adulation.

The curly-haired kid is now a genuine star. American television loves him and that is good but his admission that his disappointing final round at Doral was due to "tiredness and a loss of adrenalin" is slightly fretful for those of us who punted on him early this season to do well in the majors.

His mum and dad arrive in the States now and what the Wee One needs is a bit of TLC and a rest. The best thing he can now do is to kick back, sling the clubs somewhere dark and enjoy himself at other things for a while. While he is doing this he can mull over the fact that Mr Woods has suggested that here indeed is a future world No.1 player. And if anyone should know, it is Tiger.

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