Frank Doyle looks at the Tiger Woods’ return to golf at the US Masters, and if the best golfer the world has ever known can achieve his greatest ever triumph.

Sean McManus, President of News and Sports at CBS, said last month that Barack Obama’s inauguration as President of the USA in January 2009 was the only news story of the past ten to fifteen years bigger than Tiger Woods’ return to golf. Tiger had not announced his return at that stage but right now it looks like McManus may have been underselling the story.

Whatever else you may say about Tiger Woods, you cannot deny his timing. The course at Augusta National is golf’s cathedral – due deference is paid to links golf and the British Open, but the potent combination of history, tradition and the most beautifully maintained golf course in the world make Augusta National and the US Masters the course and the tournament pros want to win above all others.

And this is the venue that Tiger choose for his comeback. Not some penny-ante tourney in Arizona or Florida, but the biggest one there is, where legendary deeds are carved into the very stone. Playing golf in a major tournament is always tough. But to win at Augusta under the pressure and attention currently directed at Tiger is just staggering.

Tiger Woods hasn’t played competitive golf this year. His private life has collapsed about his ears. Journalists go through his trash cans, he’s fighting a desperate battle to save his marriage and it seems like every week a new mistress is in the press telling her side of the story.

And despite all this, Tiger is still the golf betting favorite to win his fifth green jacket.

Sports Interaction made Woods favorite at 7/2 or thereabouts weeks ago, 11/1 the field, and that’s about right. We can’t risk Tiger being any shorter because he’s too good, and too public. But it could go either way – if Tiger doesn’t win it, he could miss the cut entirely, as rust, pressure and God knows what else combine to break him.

But the question you have to ask before laying it down is: can Tiger shrug off the trauma of the past five months to hit screaming tee shots, produce magical short play from off the green and sufficiently chill his blood to sink twelve foot putts on the notoriously glassy greens of Augusta?

And the answer is yes. Tiger Woods is good enough to put everything that’s happened him since he crashed his car into a hydrant in Florida behind him to scorch the course and claim his fifth green jacket and his fifteenth major. He is that good.

There are lots of value for money contenders. There’s a strong overseas challenge from Ernie Els, Pádraig Harrington and Paul Casey. Phil Mickelson is second favorite after Tiger, and Sean O’Hair is a tempter to place or show. But the story is Tiger, and his return to the world that he knows and understands best, that exists from tee to green. His stage awaits.