Tiger Woods on the comeback trail at the Augusta Masters

The last time Tiger Woods graced a major was at the 2008 US Open. Playing with a torn ligament in his knee and a double stress fracture in his tibia, any time he put weight on his left leg he did so with pain. He had to make a birdie on the last hole to force a play-off with Rocco Mediate. A hard day's golf later, the pair were still even. Woods grimaced one more time and won his 14th major with a par at the 91st hole. As Mediate was forced to concede, "This guy does things that are just not normal by any stretch of the imagination."

In the eight months since then, as Woods, still only 33, has slowly recovered and the global economy has rapidly deteriorated, interest and investment in the game of golf has evaporated. So much so that the number of television viewers watching the second half of the PGA season last year was only just more than half the amount who watched the year before.

Gary Player, for whom this year's Masters will be the last of his many Majors, summed up the prevailing mood: "Golf is in a very precarious situation with the economy and sponsors. We have never needed a golfer as much as the Tour needs Tiger Woods right now."

Tiger Woods could make a fairytale comeback and claim a fifth MastersRecuperated, Tiger has returned for three tournaments this spring. He started tentatively, losing in the second round of a Match Play event in Arizona. But at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, with the TV audience returning to see whether their icon still had his powers, he overturned a five-shot deficit, and clinched the title with a 15-foot birdie putt on the last. "You just remember how to do it", Woods said.

Now on to Augusta this Thursday, with its impossibly green fairways and the devils of Amen Corner. The prospect of Woods making a fairytale comeback and claiming his fifth Masters has dominated the build-up, and seduced many of his competition. "It's Tiger by miles", was Mediate's sentimental prediction.

There are other possible stories though. Padraig Harrington, who snapped up both of the majors played in Woods's absence, wants to win both here and at the US Open to complete what he calls a 'Paddy Slam'. Phil Mickelson, who had the gall to briefly threaten Woods's number one ranking during his absence, has hit a hot streak. And there are two highly-rated youngsters playing in the Masters for the first time.

One of them is the ‘Bashful Prince', 17-year-old Japanese prodigy Ryo Ishikawa. The other is Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, a 19-year-old with cherubic curls spilling out from his baseball cap. Now at 17 in the world rankings after a maiden tour win in the Dubai Desert Classic, McIlroy believes he can win the tournament. And he's not the only one: South African Ernie Els thinks McIlroy has a chance, too.

"Rory has been inspired by Tiger, driven to try to emulate him", Els said. "It was different for my generation. We were going along happily, picking up a major or two and believing that we might claim the future. But then Tiger came up behind us and mugged us. We couldn't resist his talent."