Expect the unexpected at next week's Masters

[Sports News]

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By Mark Lamport-Stokes (Reuters) - As the first of the season's four major championships, the Masters has always been the most keenly anticipated, a veritable golfing 'rite of spring' that brings together the game's leading players in Augusta, Georgia. This year, that sense of expectation is especially heightened with the list of likely winners deeper than ever and multiple champion Tiger Woods a notable absentee for the first time in his career after having surgery to repair a pinched nerve in his back. Fellow American Phil Mickelson, another perennial contender at Augusta National, is also facing injury concerns of his own, leaving golf fans to expect even more of the unexpected as the April 10-13 tournament fast approaches. Woods, who has claimed the coveted Green Jacket four times, has struggled with back pain since last August and he withdrew from last month's Arnold Palmer Invitational, his final tune-up event, to get ready for the Masters before that bid was aborted.

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