Rory McIlroy's "unbelievable golf" will make him tough to beat in the 83rd Masters according to Ryder Cup team-mate Jon Rahm.
McIlroy needs to win a first green jacket at Augusta National to complete the career grand slam, but comes into the week in brilliant form after following five straight top-six finishes with victory in the Players Championship.
Rahm himself has six top-10 finishes from nine events in 2019 and finished one place above McIlroy in last year's Masters, but concedes the Northern Irishman is the man he would back to win if push came to shove.
"Who am I going to say besides me?" Rahm said with a smile. "I like to bet on myself. But that's just being confident. It's tough to choose in a sport like golf, especially in this event.
"When you have winners from Tiger (Woods) to Seve (Ballesteros) to Mike Weir to Phil (Mickelson) to Jordan (Spieth) to Ben Hogan, you have vastly different players and ways of playing the game and that's the beauty about it.
"There's not one way to play this golf course. There's so many different ways to do it and there's so many different things that you can do right. It's one of those weeks where anybody can win at any given point.
"Now, if we are going based on how people are playing and forces to be reckoned with you always have to count Tiger and Phil. That's seven green jackets between the two of them, it's heavy. Bubba Watson, always somebody to count.
"But Rory is playing unbelievable golf. I mean, he's playing the best golf he's played in a long time and I think he's one of the only ones who has more top 10s than I do this year, including the win at The Players.
"That's really good golf and it seems like his putting has been lot better. If Rory is hitting the ball the way he is, and he putts good, he's tough to beat.
"You can have people show up out of nowhere and win. It's hard to bet but if I had to put all of it on one person that's not myself, probably go with Rory. This is who I see right now playing the best and somebody who fits really good to this golf course."
