Odds of Tiger Woods playing and winning the Masters get a bump

Tiger Woods, according to his pal Notah Begay III and Las Vegas handicappers, has a better chance of playing in and actually winning the Masters than he’s had since he drove out of the parking lot at Torrey Pines and into seclusion.

Begay, a Golf Channel analyst and former Stanford teammate of Woods, told 120 Sports that there was a “50-50” chance his long-time friend would make it to Augusta — a far more optimistic forecast from just a few weeks ago.

While a Tiger sighting on the first tee of the Masters on April 9 remains far from certain, Woods was encouraged by the “steady improvement” he has made during his self-imposed hiatus from competition.

“I think his golf game as a whole is in a great place,” Begay said. “I think it was good for him to take a step back, to reassess a variety of different things and do things on his timeline.

“I think that’s very important. It’s easy to get bullied into trying to acquiesce to the media’s concerns, or the PGA Tour’s concerns, or other people’s agendas,” added Begay, who said after the debacle at Torrey that Woods “embarrassed” himself. “My suggestion to him was to take as much time as he needed to just figure out this issue with his short game and also to work on or clean up a couple of things that might be a little loose with his golf swing. I think things are really settling.”

Begay, who has become the mouthpiece for the former world No. 1, acknowledged he did not really know if Tiger would make it to Augusta. He believed, however, that his chances of continuing his quest for that elusive 15th major title had improved markedly over the past several weeks.

“It’s literally a 50-50 chance right now, from what I can tell,” he said. “I think that’s far better odds than what it was, say, three weeks ago. Three weeks ago I would have said there was maybe a 1-in-10 chance of him playing at Augusta.”

After abysmal play at the Hero World Challenge in December, a career-worst 82 and missed cut in Phoenix, and a withdrawal after 11 holes at the Farmers Insurance Open, Woods announced on February 11 that he would take a break until he deemed himself “tournament-ready.” He missed last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational for the second straight year and said he was “hopeful” he would not have to skip the Masters two years running.

At No. 96 in the world, should Woods decide to tee it up at Augusta without playing at next week’s Shell Houston Open -- and there is no indication the GC of Houston is on his flight path -- he will enter the men’s first major of the season outside the top 100.

In the meantime, as Woods’ world ranking plummeted, his odds of winning his fifth green jacket became more and more of a long shot -- until recently. As speculation that he would play Augusta has advanced (Bubba Watson expects to see Tiger on Magnolia Lane), Woods has inched his way back into the wise guys’ good graces. (By the way, just because Nike unveiled the togs Tiger will wear if he returns to the course at Augusta, doesn’t mean he’s going to play.)

Prior to the World Challenge -- and even though he was coming off an abbreviated, injury-riddled terrible 2014 season -- Woods was second only to Rory McIlroy as the oddsmakers’ favorites to win the green jacket, according to Linemakers. The line on Tiger, which was plunging after that 82, nose-dived to 50/1 after his WD.

Different books, different odds, since some still had Woods at 50/1 as of Sunday, but Bovada listed him at 40/1 on Wednesday.

Whichever odds you like -- 50-50 or 40/1 -- Tiger Woods on the tee at Augusta on April 9 remains a long shot.

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