Where’s the fire?

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Welcome to the Masters, where the world’s best golfers have gathered this week to carry on a tradition like none other.

Kissing up to Tiger.

Have you ever heard anything like it? In a sports world whose very pulse is pumped by the heartbeat of competition, would this happen anywhere else?

Tiger Woods showed up here this week reiterating his understandable belief that he can win this summer’s golf Grand Slam.

Then his opponents -- exasperated gasp -- agreed with him.

“He has already won four majors in a row, so it’s not an impossible feat,” Phil Mickelson said this week. “I think it’s doable.”

Doable? Lefty, are you that dork-able?

You’re Woods’ biggest rival, yet you’re going to concede him the entire World Series even before the season’s first pitch?

Imagine Tom Brady announcing that his New England Patriots can win the Super Bowl.

Now, imagine him announcing that on the eve of the first game of the season.

Then, imagine players from all over the league agreeing with him.

“I think New England is the only team capable of doing that,” Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning said.

Impossible, right?

Well, that’s exactly what is happening at Augusta National, where the sweetness of the azaleas’ bloom is matched only by the stench of a collective wilt.

Good for Woods to announce a vision fitting perhaps the greatest golfer ever.

Lousy for everyone else to buy into it without a fight.

With Woods having won nine of his last 11 tournaments worldwide, plus five of the last 12 majors, he has earned the right to publicly say that he could become the first player to win all four professional majors in the same calendar year.

In a January news conference that rattled the golf world, he answered a question about the Grand Slam by saying, “Do I see it as a possibility? I say yes.”

When asked this week if he would back off that statement, he said, “No. . . . I’ve done it before; I’ve won all four in a row . . . [I’ve] just go to win the right four.”

The challenge does indeed seem within reach.

But what does it say about the current tour culture that nobody will challenge him back?

Publicly calling out Woods only gets you grief -- just ask Rory Sabbatini. But do his competitors have to be so darn compliant?

One by one, the other golfers stepped to the microphone this week and not only endorsed Woods’ dream, but actually seemed to be cheering for it.

That italicized quote above didn’t come from Manning, of course. But it did come from Steve Stricker, talking about Woods’ Grand Slam quest.

“I think he’s the only player capable of doing that,” he said.

Dude, you’re the fourth-ranked golfer in the world. Maybe, I don’t know, you could believe you’re capable of doing that?

Even the young and headstrong tour members seem to have given up. Just listen to Adam Scott, 27, ranked eighth in the world.

“We’re all playing better and we’re used to it,” he said of Woods’ effect on his opponents. “But he’s still playing better than us at the end of the day.”

At the end of the day? This is the beginning of the majors season. If the Grand Slam were the college football season, this would be August.

And you’re already giving him January?

What does it say about the current tour culture? It says soft. It says scared. It says uncle.

“You can have respect and admiration for someone like Woods,” said Marc Shatz, a Beverly Hills psychologist who worked with former pro Johnny Miller. “But as soon as you think you’re going to lose to him, then you’ve lost the competitive drive it takes to beat him.”

Shatz heard the other golfers’ quotes this week and, as a therapist who has also worked with the UCLA athletic program, he winced.

“If I were counseling a golfer, I would remind him that while Tiger is the world’s best player, he is also flesh and blood, he hooks and slices, he is not a god,” Shatz said. “I would tell him that by being so deferential, you end up mentally playing for second place.”

At least one study has shown that other golfers’ fear of Woods is not only palpable, but measurable.

According to eight years of data collected by Jennifer Brown, a doctorate candidate in agricultural and resource economics at California, tour regulars average nearly a stroke higher in tournaments that include Woods.

Brown formulated her theory in a paper titled “Quitters Never Win: The (Adverse) Incentive Effect of Competing With Superstars.”

She discovered a .80 stroke differential when golfers are confronted by Woods, a number that rises during periods when Woods is hot, and decreases during those rare times when he is perceived to be in a slump.

“This shows that if you are competing against an opponent you believe will win, you think, ‘Why bother trying?’ ” said Brown, whose study has been embraced by several national media outlets.

These psyched-out golfers aren’t really competing against Woods, of course, but themselves and the course.

Those athletes who could really use the superstar excuse? They rarely use it.

In fact, in sports where athletes compete directly against each other, a superstar competitor often raises one’s level of achievement.

If the rest of the sports world were like golfers, there would be no major upsets, no fairy-tale finishes, no real fights.

Eli Manning would never have led the New York Giants to the Super Bowl title. Davidson would have never come within a blink of the Final Four. And there would be no Appalachian or Boise State.

“In general, that kind of thinking is just very detrimental,” Shatz said. “You forget that you have to play the game.”

I would love to see Woods begin to make more history here. I would love to witness the greatness that he creates with each swing, each scowl, each mower-like step through the hallowed lawns.

But his charge will lose its steam without a challenge. The green jacket will lose richness if not draped across shoulders that are weary.

“You know, I’d like to bet against him,” Ernie Els said of Woods’ Grand Slam hopes. “But it’s definitely in his reach. You know, he’s definitely capable.”

Oh, come on Ernie. Bet against him. Better yet, play against him. All of you wimps. Come on.

History deserves it. So does Tiger Woods.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.

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THE MASTERS

When: Today-Sunday

Where: Augusta, Ga.

TV today: ESPN, 1 p.m.

Tee times, D10

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