One of the most popular sayings about the Masters is that it does not really begin until the back nine on Sunday.

But for Tiger Woods this year the front nine on Thursday carries added significance.

When Woods steps forward to hit his first shot at 1.30pm local time - he is in the next-to-last group with Thomas Bjorn and 19-year-old amateur Casey Wittenberg - he will know what standard has been set.

He must then try to show that concerns about his form have been blown out of all proportion. This is the first major of the year and the majors are what matter most.

Yet if the world number one hits early problems and his swing looks like it has in his last few tournaments - definitely mis-firing - an element of doubt about his ability to fight back into contention will surely enter his mind.

On paper and on recent form there appears to be six main dangers to his hopes of a fourth Masters crown and ninth major, the halfway point in his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' record.

Vijay Singh and Ernie Els are immediately behind him on the world rankings and capable of winning any event they enter.

Davis Love, if his back holds up, has the game too, Phil Mickelson is back on form, Adam Scott the best of the young guns and Padraig Harrington Europe's leading light.

Darren Clarke has high hopes too after opening with a 66 last year for a three-stroke lead before wilting - he has addressed that with a radical slimming campaign that sees him almost three stones lighter now - and doubtless there will be others in the shake-up too because the Masters inspires like no other tournament.

But Woods, as always, has most eyes on him.

And most opinions being offered about how to put things right. Even when he does not feel they are wrong.

"I get e-mails and letters all the time," he said. "In Ireland (two years ago at the American Express world championship he won) I was 26 under and bogeyed the last hole.

"I will be at the grocery store and somebody will say 'I saw you hit that one shot. I know what happened on that four iron to the right'. I get things like that."

The 28-year-old is well used by now to the "mass hysteria" of his game being even slightly off. Let alone in a slump.

"It's just one of those things where people have an opinion and they voice it. It's different for me versus any other player," he said.

"Some other player (he cited the example of Els at Bay Hill three weeks ago) has a bad week, misses the cut, it's no big deal. It slips through the radar, whereas if I shoot one bad round it's a little different.

"I think it's just expectation levels. I feel like I am playing well and things that I have been working on are starting to come together, which is great. It's exciting."

His use of the phrase "starting to come together" does reveal, however, that he knows his form has dipped.

"My swing is pretty close to where it was in 2000. The takeaway is not as solid as it has been and that's one of the things I have had to work on. I basically went back to basics on that."

Singh, the world's best player based on results just in the past 12 months rather than the two-year cycle used by the official rankings, could not be happier with the state of his game while Els said on Tuesday: "I didn't hit it too good on the front nine, but then I found something.

"The greens are very, very fast and I am hoping for a little bit of rain. It will just give us a better chance."

The forecast is for Augusta to stay dry until the weekend. A big change from last year when the first day was washed out.