It’s Masters week, which means it’s time for Inside Sport to offer up a mea culpa. In the April edition of the magazine, we declared that Tiger Woods’ chances at the year’s first Major could be confidently dismissed. While acknowledging that he had returned to an elite level of form, we pointed to Woods’ now jacket-less run of eight years, as well as the steady erosion of his putting ability.

It seemed like a sound call back in February, but now looks like a classic bad magazine prediction as attentions turn to Augusta. In Woods’ last two starts, wins at Doral and Bay Hill in Florida, he has looked like the Tiger of old, hitting shots that only he could and holing putts when he needed them most. He seized back the No.1 ranking – a Major title seems like it will naturally follow.

The drumbeat for a Tiger victory march is absolutely pounding now, and we can all expect the TV coverage of the tournament to be wall-to-wall Woods, of early 2000s vintage. Hashing it out with our colleagues from Golf Australia magazine, we mulled which of the familiar Tiger patterns would emerge this week.

The most solid one – iron-clad, really – is the subdued start, a no-drama 70 as some other, often obscure, tour pro gets a day of headlines by grabbing the first-round lead. Woods will likely be lurking in the top-10 by halfway, setting himself for a Saturday move to the top of the leaderboard. Then it’s a question of whether circumstances on Sunday dictate that he holds on for victory (his preferred method), or has to chase it, cavalier-like.

Golf Australia’s sage tournament tipster Steve Keipert, who is calling it for Woods this week, notes that the build-up looks so good for Tiger that it has become the main concern – it’s just too perfect. He’s arrived at Augusta on three previous occasions having already won three times in that season, but didn’t go on to claim the Green Jacket in any of those years. That, of course, is a small-sample record that might not mean anything.

With the way he gets it around the course, it’s near impossible to envision a scenario where Woods finishes too far down the board, and if he has a good tournament on the greens, it’s close to certain he’ll have his 15th career Major title in the bag. Golf, however, rarely conforms with what’s expected. Wherever he finishes, it’ll be intriguing to see which version of Tiger Woods shows up this week.