Tiger Woods' renowned focus will be put to its greatest test since the death of his father when he returns to golf at next week's US Masters, according to Vijay Singh's former mental coach. Dr. Joe Parent, who helped Fijian Singh become world No. 1 in 2004, believes Woods is capable of winning a fifth Green Jacket at Augusta National despite his stunning fall from grace since the end of last year. “Tiger wouldn't have signed up to play in the Masters if he didn't think he was capable of winning,” Parent told Reuters. “The only comparable thing we have is the trauma he went through when his father Earl died in 2006 and the first tournament he played in after that was the US Open at Winged Foot.” Woods missed the cut at Winged Foot, the first time he had failed to qualify for the weekend at a major championship since he turned professional a decade earlier. “Now Winged Foot is a far less hospitable golf course for a slightly wayward driver of the ball than Augusta, so to compare the two is a little bit like apples and oranges,” added Parent. “But Tiger was still suffering psychologically at that time and he may have thought he was ready and he wasn't. That may be the case here at the Masters, that he thinks he is ready but not quite. We will find out.” Woods, a 14-time major champion who is believed to be the wealthiest sports personality in the world, has not played competitive golf since his private life spectacularly unravelled at the end of last year. The 34-year-old American took an indefinite break from the game to try to repair his marriage amid tawdry revelations about his extra-marital affairs before announcing last month he would return at the April 8-11 Masters. The greatest challenge at Augusta has always been presented by its heavily contored and slick greens, and for Parent this will be the critical area for world No. 1 Woods. “Where the pressure and mental game aspect shows up is around and on the greens,” he said. “If you aren't completely focused and completely committed to those shots it can be a long, long day. That's something that nobody can predict: how ready he is as far as his intensity of focus. “It's all about where his mind is and how much he can let everything that's off the golf course stay off the golf course, and not encounter the flickerings of hope and fear that many of his colleagues are used to but he hasn't experienced before.” Parent, who has also worked with PGA Tour players David Toms and Tim Petrovic and women's world No. 5 Cristie Kerr, was uncertain which of two paths Woods would follow at the Masters. “There are two ways to bet,” he said. “One is that it's going to be hard for Tiger to be quite as focused as he was when everything was lined up in his favor. “The other school of thought is to say: ‘He is coming back with something to prove'. If that's the case then you may see a level of intensity that is surprisingly like the level of intensity that we are used to seeing from him. “We don't know which Tiger is going to show up and he might not know either,” added Parent.
