AUGUSTA, Ga. — The guy sitting behind you at dinner has one. Ian Poulter has one. The familiar-looking fellow selling merchandise and smoking cigarettes outside his bus on Washington Road has one. "People have different opinions," Lee Westwood said recently, "but I suppose that's what makes life interesting, isn't it, opinions? They're like a part of the body, everybody has one."

Hours before the start of the 2011 Masters, opinions cleave straight down the middle to form two camps, which is standard, because the Masters field is like the market for cola — lots of options, two stand out. Phil Mickelson, 40, and Tiger Woods, 35, have won six of the last 10 Masters. Like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus before them, they've cracked the code.

>>Watch Masters Golf Live Streaming Online On HD TV

"I'm picking Tiger," said John Daly, who, as usual, was stationed across the street from Augusta National on Washington Road, selling his lion-logo wares. "I'm tired of people being so critical of him."

Mickelson (No. 3) won last weekend to pass Woods (No. 7) in the World Ranking for the first time in 14 years. Both of them, along with four others in the top seven, would take over No. 1 with a victory this week. But Mickelson has much more to gain than that. With a victory, he would tie Woods and Palmer with a fourth green jacket. That would give Mickelson four of the last eight Masters titles, the undying goodwill of the public and, in the minds of many fans, would make him the modern king of Augusta National.

In his one and only practice round this week, he teed off with Fred Couples and Kevin Streelman in warm sunshine early Wednesday, hitting a 40-yard pitch to about a foot on the third hole, and watching a deer run across the eighth fairway. Streelman left after nine, and Rickie Fowler and U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein joined the Mickelson group.