Rory McIlroy or Tiger Woods. They are the two names being bandied around as if they were heavyweight boxers preparing for a title fight. One golf magazine in America even went as far as portraying the pair on its cover as championship prizefighters.

Yet it does not take a genius to realise that golf tournaments can very rarely be pre-ordained as two-horse races and one only needs to cast the memory back 12 months to last year's tournament to discern that the Masters could never be such.

Both Woods and McIlroy make pretty convincing cases for favouritism when the 76th Masters tees off today in Georgia. After more than two years in the golfing wilderness, Woods is back in business having shot a 62 at the Honda Classic and then followed it up with a first official PGA Tour win in 30 months at the Arnold Palmer Invitiational at Bay Hill.

He has a new swing that's finally working the way he wants it, and with it the old confidence that helped bring him 14 majors before revelations about his private life brought his world crashing down around him.

“I think I have more shots than I did in 2000,” Woods said in reference to his nine-win, three-major season for the ages. “As far as controlling my game, yeah, I feel like I’m hitting the ball just as consistently day-in and day-out as I did then.

“I feel like I'm driving the ball much better than I have. I've got some heat behind it, and it's very straight. My iron game is improving. So everything is headed in the right direction at the right time.”

McIlroy, meanwhile, is riding the crest of a wave right now. He bounced back fantastically well from that final-round meltdown at Augusta 12 months ago and came back eight weeks later and won the US Open for his first major title.

And this year he kept the charging Woods at bay to actually win the Honda Classic and claim the world number-one ranking for the first time, aged 22.

Also from five starts he has five top-five finishes to make him one of the most in-form players on the planet.

“I’m in a great place,” McIlroy said. “I feel like my golf game is in great shape. I’m coming back here a much more experienced player and feel like a much better player than the player that came here last year. I'm very excited about the week.”

It's all very impressive but you would have to agree with Lee Westwood, who during his Tuesday press conference here at Augusta National said: “I think everybody in this room would have to be naïve to think it’s a two-horse race, wouldn’t they?”

Indeed they should. Schwartzel's win last year proved that. An 80-1 shot with the bookies heading in and ranked 29th in the world, he made history on a crazy final day which saw McIlroy blow his four-shot 54-hole lead with his four birdies on the final four holes to outlast Australians Jason Day and Adam Scott for a Masters win at just his second attempt.

Then there is the world number one Luke Donald. Remember him?

He's been virtually anonymous in the pre-Masters talk and yet he has a victory on the PGA Tour in his last start and was tied for fourth alongside Woods amongst others last year at Augusta. Or how about Lee Westwood, at the peak of his powers with six top-three finishes in his last 14 major starts and still waiting to land the major his golf deserves.

And then ask Phil Mickelson what he thinks about a two-horse race. After all, Lefty has won three of the last eight Masters.

Do you think that tailor hasn't sized up already? This Masters is well and truly wide open.