Photo: © Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images Tiger Woods after winning the Masters in 2002.

There are some things which are totally automatic: the sun will come up in the morning, as it has for approximately 4.5 billion years; the law of gravity will always pull objects toward the center of the earth, as it has done, oh, 4.5 billion years; and, the House and Senate will spend 80 percent of their time in session squabbling along Democratic and Republican lines.

Add to this, some think, the sporting theorem that if it’s a golf major, and if one E. Tiger Woods is an entrant, then E. Tiger is going to win. No ifs-ands-buts, should’ve-would’ve-could’ves about it. Tiger Woods is your winner, before he pulls off the first headcover.

OK, so I’m a heretic, and not only me, but Tiger himself. Tiger knows he is not going to win every major. Majors are extremely difficult to win – for Woods they are easier to win than for most golfers, but even for Tiger, they are difficult.

This is the week of the Masters, and there are a number of savants who are saying Tiger will win. Fair enough. He is the logical favorite. But people, it would be extremely risky to take Woods against the rest of the field at even-money. And that is just about what you have to bet if you take him this year.

A few oddsmakers have Tiger at 5/4, but most have him at 11/10. That would be difficult if there were only Tiger and the rest of the world top 10. But at even-steven against the world top 50 – plus a few more?

Tiger turned pro in late 1996 and played in the Masters in 1997. He won that first one by a record 12 shots. But since then, he has played in 10 more Masters, and won just 3. He didn’t win it last year – that one went to Zach Johnson. That would make reasonable odds about 3-1 – still an overwhelmingly strong figure, but not nearly as lopsided as even-money.

After Tiger won it in ’97, he wouldn’t repeat for three years. Mark O’Meara won in ’98, then Jose Maria Olazabal and Vijay Singh took the title the next two years.