Many contenders in this Masters field

The list of potential winners of the 79th Masters Tournament is one of the longest in recent years.

“There are a lot of guys,” said 2013 winner Adam Scott, who is among them.

Only one player, 10th-ranked Jimmy Walker, has won twice on the PGA Tour this season. He and fellow Texan Jordan Spieth, who is No. 4 in the world, are the hottest players coming into Thursday’s first round.

But they’ve never won at Augusta National Golf Club, which two of the other favorites have, headed by Bubba Watson, who has won two of the past three. Scott, who is ranked sixth in the world, is the other.

Other players in the Official World Golf Ranking top 10 expected to vie for the green jacket are top-ranked Rory McIlroy, who is seeking his third major championship in a row and can complete the career Grand Slam at age 25 with a win.

Fifth-ranked Jason Day and No. 7 Dustin Johnson have won this season, and No. 2 Henrik Stenson has a runner-up finish and two fourth-place finishes in four starts.

“As I sit here and talk about my comfort level of playing the golf course, you can (understand) what Bubba’s must feel like,” Scott said. “He’s won two of the last three. It’s seemingly made for his kind of game, and he’s playing nicely as well. Rory, of course, has been so dominant over the last eight months or so, certainly in the majors. It’s hard to look past those two.

“But then there are other guys on form … Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker and Jordan Spieth would be the top three off the top of my head, and I probably forget guys. Dustin Johnson, you would think it would suit him really well as well, if he plays anything like he did at Doral. It was a display of driving. So these guys are in the best form and playing the best, they certainly must have high hopes this week.”

As does Scott, who has returned to the broomstick putter he used so effectively the past four years. He made a three-tournament experiment in March with a conventional putter ahead of the anchoring ban that will start Jan. 1.

“Obviously I haven’t played lots of golf this year, and to kind of just go about my business the last couple weeks, and then come here for the last few days and get familiar with the golf course and feel comfortable and put everything I’ve worked on into practice out there has been nice,” Scott said. “There’s big stories in golf this week, and I certainly am not missing being one of them at the moment. But hopefully that will change Sunday.”

The two biggest stories, of course, are McIlroy’s bid to become the sixth person to win the career slam and Tiger Woods, who is back after a nine-week break to find his game.

McIlroy believes Watson is the favorite but says he “should have a good chance” if he has a good week on the greens. McIlroy’s best finish in the Masters came last year when a final-round 69 moved him up to a tie for eighth.

“I think I’ve developed a game where I can compete at pretty much any golf course now,” McIlroy said. “That might not have been the case two or three years ago. But yeah, if you’re looking at the courses, I mean, it’s the one that should set up the best for me just with my ball flight and being comfortable off the tee here, especially, being able to turn the ball over from right to left and all that.”

The biggest question mark surrounds Woods, whose health and dreadful short game forced him to take the long break.

“Was I concerned for him?” McIlroy asked. “I mean, not really. It’s hard to be concerned for someone that’s already won 14 majors and 79 PGA Tour events and earned over a billion dollars in his career. I think he’s done OK.”

Woods has dropped out the top 100 in the world ranking for the first time since 1996 and hasn’t played since Feb. 5. He’s ranked 111th.

“My guess is as good as yours,” Scott said about Woods. “I really don’t know. I have no idea what he’s been doing. I’ve listed a bunch of guys that I’ve watched play a little bit and followed their results, but it’s a little bit unknown with Tiger because he hasn’t played for a few months. But that doesn’t mean anything. If you go off what I did, I didn’t play for three months and came out and finished fourth at Doral.

“I’m sure he has high hopes,” Scott said of Woods, who does.

“I’m excited to be back, to be back playing at this level,” Woods said during his Tuesday news conference. “I feel like my game is finally ready to compete at this level, the highest level, and I’m excited to be here.”

Woods is intent on winning his first Masters in 10 years.

“I worked my (butt) off,” he said. “That’s the easiest way to kind of describe it. I worked hard. People would never understand how much work I put into it to come back and do this again. But it was sunup to sundown, and whenever I had free time; if the kids were asleep, I’d still be doing it, and then when they were in school, I’d still be doing it. So it was a lot of work.”

He’s been playing well in the practice rounds and has embraced his return to Augusta National after sitting out last year after back surgery.

He’s even making a rare appearance in Wednesday’s Par-3 Contest, where his children Sam and Charlie will caddie for him. He will tee off at 2:48 p.m. with Steve Stricker and Fred Couples.