You may have heard: Tiger Woods is playing The Masters.

The 15-time major winner will spend Rounds 1 and 2 at Augusta National grouped with two top-10 players seeking their first major victory: Xander Schauffele and Viktor Hovland. The threesome will tee off at 10:18 a.m. on Thursday and 1:24 p.m. on Friday. Tiger's most recent win came at Augusta in 2019.

“It means so much to me just to play this golf course and appreciate the memories I've had here,” Tiger said at his Tuesday press conference. “So much of my life has been here at Augusta National.”

Nobody on the planet knows the course better than Tiger — a five-time Masters champ — and nobody has a deeper bag of tricks. No course rewards institutional knowledge like Augusta National. If Tiger can physically gut through the “hardest walk in golf,” he should be able to rely on guile, skills, ball-striking, wisdom, and experience to genuinely contend. The forecast looks cold and rainy — not ideal for his compromised leg.

“Whether I’m a threat or not, who knows,” acknowledged Tiger. “People probably didn’t think I was a threat in ‘19 either and that turned out OK.”

Last year, Tiger stunned the world by playing The Masters — his first tournament in 14 months following his car accident. Woods shot a 71 on Thursday and made the cut, but his body succumbed to the course's hilliness and the chilly conditions. He shot 78-78 over the weekend and finished +13.

At his press conference, Woods — who shot -1 at his lone PGA Tour event this season, the Genesis Invitational in February — said that his game is in good shape, though how his leg holds up remains the giant question mark.

“I think my game is better than it was last year at this particular time. My endurance is better. But, it aches a little bit more than it did last year. … I just have to be cognizant of how much I can push it. I can hit a lot of shots. The difficulty for me is going to be the walking going forward.”

Tiger arrived on Sunday for a nine-hole round with only wedges and a putter then got some work in on the practice range. He spent Monday playing with Rory McIlroy, Tom Kim, and Fred Couples. He shot another practice round on Tuesday morning.

Couples said Tiger is “hitting it really strong and solid” and “looks good,” though he isn't sure his leg will hold up much better than last year.

“The leg, I guess, this is what it is,” said Couples. “I don’t know how much better it’s ever going to get. If he can get better where he can play 12 events, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think he would tell me that.”

With that context in mind — and without certainty on the precise weather conditions — let's posit three predictions about how Tiger Woods will perform at Augusta National this week.

Tiger Woods: Masters Predictions

1) Tiger will make the cut

Woods has never missed the cut at Augusta since turning pro. He's vying to tie Couples and Gary Player's record of 23 straight Masters cuts. His body may break down over the weekend, but he should be able to pocket at least one quality round before moving day — enough to stick around for the weekend. (Bonus prediction: He shoots an opening round 69.)

2) Tiger will shoot lower than 2022

OK, admittedly this isn't the boldest prediction. But, Tiger should enter the 2023 tournament in better shape than last year.

Woods played relatively well at Riviera. His iron play was strong and his ball speed and swing speed was top-notch. He even out-drove Rory and Justin Thomas a few times. Assuming his leg can fare slightly better, Woods should be able to pose a more competitive score this year.

“It’s gotten better every day,” his caddie Joe LaCava said on Wednesday. “Once that plane lands in Augusta, something just clicks. I’m cautiously optimistic. I expect big things.”

Tiger said he's been recreating Augusta-type shots at his home course. Despite not having a lot of practice reps, he knows Augusta like the back of his hand.

“It’s one of those golf courses that the more you play it, the more you understand it,” 1998 Masters champ Mark O’Meara told The New York Times.  “The more you’ve played there, the better your chances are.”

3) Tiger will finish better than Phil Mickelson

The tension between PGA and LIV players is a front-page storyline this week. Of course, no two players have a more sustained and layered rivalry than Mickelson — who basically co-founded LIV as leverage against the PGA Tour— and Woods — who has become a shadow commissioner of the PGA Tour and is actively working to combat LIV's disruption.

Any personal interactions between the two multiple-time Masters winners will surely be fodder for content. On the course, though, each player will be motivated to, at the very least, best one another.

I don't see the 52-year-old Mickelson hanging with the 47-year-old Woods, even though Phil has technically played more competitive golf in recent months. If you haven't been tuning into LIV action on the CW, Mickelson has not exactly thrived in the 54-hole, no-cut, team-centric format mostly played on amateur-level public courses. In three tournaments in 2023, Mickelson has finished in 27th, 32nd, and 41st place — out of 49. He ranks 42nd in the LIV “standings”.

Even though Phil (who skipped the 2022 Masters amid LIV controversy), like Tiger, can maneuver around Augusta in his sleep, he just isn't a competitive golfer at the moment. Tiger, at least, shot under par six weeks ago at a highly-competitive PGA event on a tactically challenging golf course that shares similarities to Augusta.