While all is still not normal in the world, The Masters is back in its rightful place in April. After being moved to November due to COVID-19, the iconic grounds of Augusta National Gulf Club will once again be in full bloom when the game’s absolute best tee it up in search of a green jacket.
We’ll hope for more drama this year after Dustin Johnson virtually removed all doubt early on Sunday in last year’s five-shot victory. It was the largest margin of victory since Tiger Woods won his first green jacket in 1997.
Rae’s Creek and Ike’s Pond and the bursting azaleas and the beautifully manicured greens are all welcomed signs of spring and it will be great to have the tournament back on the second weekend of April.
It is also a great time to get set up at DraftKings Sportsbook so that you can bet on The Masters, other golf events, or any of the sports that we have going on right now. You can get a Deposit Bonus worth up to $1,000 if you sign up through us at ATS.io and there are some special Masters offers on the Bet $1, Win $100 DraftKings Promo page for you to check out as well.
Masters Odds
It is Dustin Johnson that is the favorite at DraftKings at +950. Bryson DeChambeau and resurgent Jordan Spieth, who just won the Valero Texas Open in the final tune-up event, are priced at +1150. Proud papa Jon Rahm, who could have been forced to miss the Masters if his wife went into labor, and Justin Thomas are priced at +1250. Rahm’s wife gave birth this past weekend, so he has the green light for this week.
Rory McIlroy is the only other player under 20/1 with a +1900 price. Patrick Cantlay is just over at +2050, but then we have a lot of excellent players with Xander Schauffele at 26/1, Brooks Koepka at 28/1, WGC-Workday Champion and former U.S. Open champ Collin Morikawa at +3150, and then Daniel Berger, Paul Casey, Tony Finau, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, and Cameron Smith at 35/1.
This is the hard part about handicapping this tournament. A lot of prices are compressed and any one of those guys can win this event. There are a lot of players at extreme long shot prices that have no chance, but most everybody with a reasonable price has the skills to win.
Augusta National Golf Club
As a former plant nursery, every hole is named after a tree or shrub. What we know as Amen Corner is encompasses White Dogwood, Golden Bell, and Azalea. There are others, like Carolina Cherry (9), Tea Olive (1), and of course, Redbud (16), Nandina (17), and Holly (18).
More than the trivia questions spawned from the names, we can look at Augusta for what it truly is – a tough golf course. When you look at the guys that have had the most success here, you see names like Spieth, Rahm, Lee Westwood, DJ, Tiger, Rory, Finau, Koepka, Day, Scott, Thomas. The best of the best in a lot of ways. Granted, you also see Bo Van Pelt, at least according to the Course History Index at Datagolf, but he’s only played 12 rounds here.
This is a ball striker’s course, but also a course for the well-rounded player. All of those guys have been able to putt well along with killing it in the other strokes gained departments. Usually a draw will be the best shot shape off the tee for a lot of these, hence the success for guys like DJ and Bubba Watson.
Who Has Had Success Here?
I just ran through a list of guys that play well in a SG context. Those guys have had a lot of high finishes, too. Spieth is a past winner here. Rahm hasn’t won, but has three straight top 10s. DJ has five straight top 10s. Rory has been in the top 10 in six of his last seven. He’s got a pretty good shot shape for this course, too.
Xander Schauffele was a runner-up. Finau has a couple T10s. Hideki Matsuyama has a good shot shape here, too, and has four top-15 finishes in six years. Matt Kuchar has seven top-25 finishes including four in the top eight. Watson has the two wins.
It takes a special player to be special at Augusta National and most of the guys with the short prices have been exactly that in this tournament.
Who Has Had Recent Success?
Jordan Spieth is in some excellent form. He got the win in San Antonio on Sunday and also finished in the top five at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
When you get a field of this magnitude coupled with some of the recent events we’ve had, you get a lot of recent success. DeChambeau won the Arnold Palmer and Justin Thomas won the PLAYERS Championship in emotional fashion at TPC Sawgrass. Matt Jones won the Honda Classic, though nobody considers him to be a strong contender here. Collin Morikawa, a much stronger contender, won the WGC-Workday Championship. Billy Horschel won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but Matt Kuchar, a guy with a lot of success at ANGC in the past, also played extremely well there.
Paul Casey, Corey Conners, Matthew Fitzpatrick, and Jason Kokrak are all guys with multiple top-10 finishes in recent events.
Picks for The Masters
This is such a tough nut to crack because there are a lot of elite players and any one of them could win. We’ve also seen guys like Danny Willett win The Masters, but the Willetts of the world are few and far between.
I’ll be looking at Paul Casey, whose game seems to fit this course extremely well at 35/1. You can even get +550 for a top-five finish as well. If nothing else, I think Casey at even money for a top-20 finish is an excellent bet.
I also like Daniel Berger in that 35/1 price range. He’s a great ball striker and usually one of the better putters among the top guys in SG: Tee-to-Green. You could also make a strong case for Patrick Reed in that 35/1 range as well.
Matchups and groups are a good way to attack this tournament as well. I like Brian Harman over Ryan Palmer with that left-handed shot shape and a good run at the PLAYERS Championship for Harman.
Corey Conners over Adam Scott at -120 is a good look as well. While Scott has had a lot of success here, Conners is in a great form cycle right now.
Check out ESPN on Thursday and Friday and CBS on Saturday and Sunday for Masters coverage.
