Mendoza: Tiger’s mind puts Masters within reach

THIS is Masters Week (April 8-11, US time), the most celebrated week in golf.

Why because this is when the world’s best golfers strut their wares together, in the first of the four majors held yearly for more than 70 years.

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The Augusta National of Georgia will enthrall us anew with its unmatched beauty – open only six months a year, the other six closed for manicuring. It’s like watching all the beauty pageants lumped in one DVD.

Again, we see golfers turn themselves into Van Goghs, Picassos and Da Vincis with strokes done impromptu on canvas. Vieweing is RSVP.

The late Jim Murray called Augusta National “the Vatican of golf,” and the Masters winner, “the pope of golf.”

Tiger Woods has been “pope of golf” four times, matching that of Arnold Palmer’s record – two shy of Jack Nicklaus’s six green jackets.

Tiger’s favored to win again?

That’s old hat: He’s been Top seed 13 straight years from 1998, after winning it in 1997 by a record 12 strokes – as a 21-year-old rookie.

He’s saddled now with that darn baggage of having bedded more than 12 women other than his wife, Elin.

Who cares?

Tiger knows golf is flog in reverse.

But who’s flogging who?

Not the crowd at Augusta, who are just about the most behaved, most respectful and most obedient in this planet.

I know. I was there in 1991 (ahem!). I knelt on and kissed the first clump of grass that I would step on before proceeding to the Press Center.

Tiger at the Masters is Pavarotti at La Scala on prime time.

To not see Tiger at Augusta is Jesus Christ absent in the Last Supper.

So what if Tiger is notoriously tagged the serial wife cheater?

Tiger might yet win his 15th major by April 12 (Manila time) – the reason being that his brains make Dr. Hannibal Lecter a nondescript.

Tiger has fallen from grace, yes, but not from his perch as No. 1 golfer in the world.

He may yet keep that position by winning the 74th Masters.

As Gary Player, the nine-time majors winner with 164 tournaments won in five decades, so aptly put it, “He’s got the mind to win the Masters again.”

It’s that mind that has shaped the world of golf all these years.

Even Marco Polo might have bowed to it.