The Masters takes place at Augusta Golf Course, close to Atlanta from 7 to 11 April 2010 and I guess it was always a no-brainer that Tiger would choose this as his return tournament. At the end of the day, he wants to be considered the greatest golfer ever to have played this game, a title that I personally would give him now, and to do that he needs to win another four majors.

There are only four majors a year and assuming he could win for another 8 to 10 years, that only gives him 32 to 40 chances. I say “only” because if somebody like Ernie Els can remain a top 10 ranked golfer in the world, and not have won a major in 5 or 6 years or only one tournament until just the other day in 2 years, you need to appreciate how hard it is to win any golf tournament, let alone majors where there are only four a year. The Masters has a very controlled environment, and it has never traditionally welcomed non-golfing media, so Tiger is not going to be harassed by the tabloids, and the golfing media really has an interest in golf only, as with most men who actually play golf and really could not care too much about whatever he may or may not have been up to in his personal life.

Before Tiger’s announcement that he was coming back to the Masters, resale tickets, although they are known as “badges” at the Masters, were retailing for $1 200,00 for the final three days of the tournament. I can only imagine that they’ve probably taken another hike now! He has won the Masters four times, and while I don’t expect him to do it in his first return to golf, where he may be a little bit shaky, it is certainly going to be fantastic to have the world’s number one golfer back in action.