Apr2 WoodsMickelson

They’ve been hailed as the new Arnie & Jack, or Hogan and Snead – all we know is that one’s called Woods and the other one is Mickelson, and many pundits predict one of the two will win this year’s Masters.

If you’re into the history books, the writing is one the wall. Masters victories go in cycles, and 2007 should be Tiger’s year.

Ben Hogan and Sam Snead took turns winning the Masters during a four-year stretch, with Hogan taking the title in 1951 and ’53 and Snead winning in 1952 and 1954.

Then Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus performed the four-year back-and-forth dance. Palmer won in 1962 and ’64, and Nicklaus handled the odd-numbered years with victories in 1963 and ’65.

Now  the same scenario is looming for Mickelson and Woods – Mickelson won in 2004, Woods in 2005 and Mickelson again in 2006…

Woods said of the rivalry: “We both feel comfortable on the golf course. We both have decent short games, and that golf course is one of the very few golf courses where we can utilize our imagination and creativity.

“You look at most of the guys who have gone through there and won, they have wonderful short games. You’ve got to bump-and-run, you’ve got to use different spins, high, low. I think once you understand how to play it and you can build your misses into some short-game situations, you start seeing the same guys up there at the top of the board.”

But he isn’t overly impressed with the every-other-year history.” Just the way it works out,” he said. “Golf is a fickle game.”