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The voice of Golf for NBC Sports Dan Hicks joined Kyle Bailey on Wednesday’s edition of The Clubhouse as he looked at Tiger’s improbable return, and who the favorites should be in this year’s edition of The Masters.
Things started with the big news that Tiger Woods is returning in time for The Masters, not even a year and a half after his horrific crash Dan said that it’s a miracle that he’s even in Augusta for this event as he can’t understand anyone who isn’t amazed that he’s back under these circumstances as he saw him last in December at the PNC Championship playing with his son Charlie but he was walking very gingerly and it felt like the earliest he could possibly return in time for The Open at St.Andrews, but the fact that he’s back in time for The Masters is an absolute shocker.
When it comes to Tiger’s chances this week Dan said that he has learned countless times never to doubt Tiger but he thinks the smart thing is to take a wait-and-see approach to see how he responds to the course before we can have any concrete feelings about how he’ll play.
Kyle then asked Dan who he thinks will win the 2022 Masters as Dan told Kyle:
“I know Justin Thomas hasn’t won since The Players last year and he needs to get some longer puts to drop, but I’m still going to ride Justin Thomas because of the ball striking and the short game ability has never been better and finally explode with the putter.”
Things ended with a little local flair as Kyle asked Dan how he thinks Harold Varner III will fare in his first Masters he said he knows Harold hasn’t been as consistent as he would like he has still shown a lot of promise this year and he wouldn’t count him out to make some noise with as wide open as this field is this year.
