Anyone who doesn’t believe golf is a mental game just as much – if not more – than it is a physical test is fooling themselves. Yogi Berra’s old baseball adage, “Baseball is 90 percent mental; the other half is physical,” applies to golf as well. You just had to watch what transpired at last weekend’s Players Championship to see how mental anguish can cripple even the best PGA players on the course.

Even Tiger Woods isn’t immune. Anyone who’s seen the rare sight of Tiger struggling on a golf course knows he doesn’t take it very well. Maybe he’s just not as used to it as we weekend duffers, but Woods suffered through the vagaries of mental meltdown almost all weekend, until the final round when he was so far back of the leaders all the pressure was off. Woods’ third round at Sawgrass, when he shot a one-over 73 to fall out of contention at five-over for the tourney, put him in such an ornery state he wouldn’t even talk to the media.

Nothing gets a golfer’s mind going more than a water hazard. And Sawgrass just happens to have one of the most famous water hazards in all of golf surrounding the 17th hole, the infamous island green. Usually a 137-yard shot to the green is blindfold-me easy, especially for a PGA pro. Putting a giant lake around the hole shakes things up a little though, for even the most grizzled PGA tour veterans.

The negative tide rolls in and instead of thinking about putting the ball close to the hole, instead you’re thinking about NOT putting the ball into the water. That little distraction usually in turn affects your physical repertoire, as your mind wanders and perhaps your shoulder turn is too tight, your head pops up early, or your hands shoot out in front of your hips. Suddenly, your ball is headed for the yawning drink, even though the shot itself in not a difficult one.

The worst part is that one-time, seemingly isolated error, can compound itself and turn your entire round into a disaster, depending on how you follow-up on adversity. The mechanics of hitting a golf ball are not complicated. But the mechanics of dealing with distraction, disappointment, and even success are a complex human concoction indeed. Everything starts with the brain.

Is anyone willing to bet against Tiger Woods this week?

Possibly. If it weren’t for Tiger’s ridiculous six straight PGA Tour victories to finish off the 2006 season, and his two wins in four events this year (including two weeks ago at Doral), handicappers would be a lot more likely to turn up their noses at Woods and his 3-2 odds to win the 2007 Masters Tournament. But you can’t argue with success. Tiger has been so dominant, it will be an upset in many people’s minds if he doesn’t wear the Green Jacket for the fifth time in his career.

Woods has made Augusta National his own personal playground. He claimed his first major there in 1997, completed his “Tiger Slam” there in 2001, defended the championship in 2002, and came back from a two-year drought to win in 2005 – even after the course had been lengthened in what many considered an attempt to “Tigerproof” Augusta.

And this was all before Woods went supernova last year. His commitment to golf appears to have been fully renewed after the death of his father Earl – although he is likely to miss some time this summer when his wife Elin is due to give birth to the couple’s first child. Woods is using the latest in Nike clubs (probably still stinging from Phil Mickelson’s 2003 jibe about “inferior equipment”), he’s playing a more cerebral style with less emphasis on his occasionally errant 1-wood, and his win at the Masters tuneup at Doral was a golf clinic.

And then there’s The Man They Call Lefty. Last year, Tiger finished third to Mickelson and suffered the ignominy of helping his rival into the Green Jacket. You know he’s been thinking long and hard about making Mickelson return the favor. As any golfer worth his salt will tell you, it’s all about visualization.