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Tiger still has the fear factor - Day

Jason Day expects Tiger Woods to be a major force at Augusta © Getty Images

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Jason Day has admitted Tiger Woods is still capable of sending chills down the spines of his rivals.

Woods has emerged from a couple of years in the golfing wilderness to get back on the winners' list on the PGA Tour with victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The former world No. 1 may never again dominate the game like he did at the start of the previous decade, but he is still capable of hot streaks and Day believes that with the crowd on his side at The Masters on Sunday he could prove an irresistible force.

Ahead of the opening major of the year, Day said: "It's Tiger: 14 majors, he can get that back in a heartbeat, especially around here with the crowds. And they are on his side, and if he's playing good, you'll definitely hear it. And that's kind of chilling if you do hear that.

"If he has momentum rolling on Sunday like he used to, he's a guy that can roll off four or five birdies on the back nine and do it pretty easily. If he has the putter rolling, it makes it very simple for him. And that's the hard thing. For us, we have to try and focus on what we need to do out there. It's like anything. If you're out there driving a car, you don't want to focus on the person driving next to you and see what they are doing. You have to focus on what you need to do and you have to drive your own car.

"I think that's what a lot of the guys five, six, seven years ago were caught up in what he was doing and not themselves. And that's how they made poor decisions or mental errors and that's how Tiger came back a lot, just by guys making a lot of mistakes and him birdieing a lot of the holes coming in."

Day is convinced Woods has rediscovered his focus for golf, which he admitted had not been there following the troubles in his personal life which stemmed back to 2009.

"Tiger's had his troubles but he certainly has been working hard," Day said. "From talking to him just recently, it just seems like you know, obviously he has other priorities, it seems like before when he was really dominating, golf was the only thing that he was focusing on on the golf course obviously.

"The only thing he wanted to do was win and dominate. Obviously with what's happened in the past over the last few years kind of got away from him a little bit I think, and you can see that competitive spirit coming back to Tiger, especially after the win at Bay Hill."

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