Masters Golf Betting – We’ll see if Scheffler, Tiger, and others have a master plan.

Masters Golf Betting: Spotlight on Scottie Scheffler

Scottie Scheffler is the favorite to win the Masters, which is coming this week. That is no surprise, as he is ranked #1 globally. Your prices may vary, but you can count on something between +400 and +450 at the sportsbook you may visit.

Scheffler’s been on a hell of a run. Over the last four months, he’s won the Hero World Challenge, the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, and the Players Championship, tied for second recently at the Houston Open (missing a putt that would have put him in a playoff) and posted four other top ten results.

You know a guy’s the favorite when you see sportsbooks posting odds on whether he can win the Grand Slam (all four majors in one year). In one book, we saw that he is a 125-1 proposition to do that, but he’s just +500 to win two of golf’s majors in 2024 (also -125 not to win any).

Now, here’s the bad news for him, we guess – no favorite has won the Masters in the last ten years.

Rory McIlroy is going to hover around +1100. Jon Rahm, the defending champion, is +1200. Those are the guys getting the most action right now.

Tiger Woods is once again in the spotlight.

As is often the case, however, the guy who will have the most eyeballs on him is Tiger Woods. But there has been a question as to whether the five-time champion would even make the start this week.

He is, at best, a longshot, and he’s at 125-1 up to 150-1.

So you’d be looking for a miracle.

It’s no secret that Tiger has been hampered by injuries despite his professing that he’s been feeling better than he has in a while. There has been a genuine concern about whether he can get out there and walk around the course for four rounds.

This sentiment has been expressed, among others, by acclaimed swing coach Butch Harmon, as well as Tiger’s friend and former Stanford teammate, Notah Begay. And maybe you can’t blame them, as Tiger packed it in last year after cutting at the end of the second round.

Still, remembering Woods’ dramatic Masters victory in 2019, after having been written off a year earlier, few people discount the possibility that he could make a little noise.

This year, he brings a different caddy, Lance Bennett, and if he tees it up, he is taking dead aim at the record for making the most consecutive cuts at Augusta.

Over the weekend, he was seen practicing on the Augusta National course, leading most people to believe that he would be present and accounted for when his scheduled tee time arrived.

But he and Bennett, who has also worked with Sungjae Im and Matt Kuchar, have had little time on the course together. In February, Woods, with Bennett on his bag, played a round and a half in the Genesis Invitational, then quit because of illness.

Exploring Wagering Options: Masters Golf Betting

There is no shortage of things you can wager on if you are willing to shop around enough. Be sure to check our post on “How to Bet on Golf” for more insights into making educated bets. For a comprehensive understanding of the various betting types, we recommend reading “Breaking Down the Different Types of Golf Bets.“

One proposition involves who the top LIV golfer in the field will be. There is lots of competition among those players who bolted the PGA Tour to grab big money but are not banned from the Masters because it is not controlled by the PGA Tour.

Rahm, the defending champ, is a LIV player; of course, he’s favorite in the prop. But there are people capable of challenging him – among them are Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, and Dustin Johnson. Some former champions like Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel, Bubba Watson, and Phil Mickelson also tied for second place at Augusta last year (with Koepka) at age 52. Before placing your bet on such dynamic competitors, it might be beneficial to explore “Important Tips to Know for Outright Golf Betting” to sharpen your betting approach.

Another interesting proposition here might be Sergio Garcia, who lost in a playoff in the LIV event in Miami this past weekend. While some referred to it as a “collapse,” he is still in some form.

It should be noted that four of the top five finishers in last year’s Masters are playing on the LIV Golf tour.

Mickelson, Bubba Watson, and Mike Weir—all former champions—are in contention to be the top finishers among left-handed golfers. But the favorite in that category is Brian Harman, who emerged triumphant in last year’s British Open (by SIX strokes) and carries a top ten OWGR (Official World Golf Ranking) position into the festivities. Harman, it should be noted, has missed the cut in three of his five Masters appearances.

So, who will be the Top Scandinavian? Here’s where you get to one of the more interesting Masters stories. Ludwig Aberg of Sweden has been the #1-ranked amateur in the world and has been a professional for less than a year. Already, he has won on both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, played in the Ryder Cup, and achieved a #9 world ranking. And the Masters will be his first major.

Some are giving him a dark horse chance of winning the tournament. That would be a tall order since a first-time starter hasn’t won the tournament in 45 years. But he’ll have to beat out Viktor Hovland of Norway, the world’s #6, to win this particular prop.

Corey Conners is only 49th in the world, but he is the favorite to be the top Canadian finisher. He also holds the distinction of being one of only ten Masters competitors to make a hole-in-one on a hole that was NOT the par-3 sixteenth.

Conners would seem to be the kind of player who can do well at Augusta; he had three consecutive top-10 finishes in the tournament before missing the cut in 2023.

There have been aces, but not in many places.

Speaking of holes in one, in case you’re interested, only 34 have been played in the 87 tournaments thus far. Most recently, Stewart Cink had an ace at the par-3 16th hole in 2022.

Twenty-four of those 34 holes in one have been at the 16th, and 19 of the 34 have been made in the last twenty years.

Double eagles have been made only four times, and the most famous, of course, was in the 1935 Masters, when Gene Sarazen, the eventual winner, did it on the 15th hole (a par 5, of course), in a shot that is said to have put the tournament clearly on the map. Therefore, it is referred to in Master lore as “the shot heard ’round the world.”

Golf betting may be more significant than you thought.

It may surprise you that golf is a very popular betting sport. The NFL is considered to be a mammoth for sports betting, and it is, but it accounts for only about four or five times the handle of pro golf events. We looked at a couple of surveys in this regard, and golf accounts for about 8% of the wagering handled in the United States. So it’s big business.

According to one supplier of sports betting platforms, 35% of the wagers made online during the Masters are “in-play,” meaning that they are done using the “live betting” apparatus. More than 20% of those were bets on which player would win any given hole.

CBS and the marketing of the Masters – an exciting story

There is no mistaking the fact that there is an association between betting popularity and television coverage. Golf is consistently on TV, and that is a contributing factor in wagering. After all, making live wagers is more challenging if you can’t see what’s happening.

The Masters is the most popular major for betting interest, even though it has more restrictions on its television coverage than most tournaments.

Whether intentional or not, the event’s marketing as a “sacred cow” of the sport has been spot on.

The Masters is the “youngest” of the majors, if you will. Yet it’s promoted to the public as the one with the most tradition in a sport that feeds on tradition.

Don’t disparage them because of it; actually, they have given up something on one end to achieve something on the other.

It is said that the Masters is perfectly content with receiving less money for its TV rights than other major championships. What they get in return is greater control over the telecast itself. You and I both know that CBS would like to air more than four minutes of commercials per hour. But that’s all they are allowed to do by the people at Augusta National. The Master also gets to approve anyone who advertises.

They have been with CBS since 1956, and all business has been done on the basis of one-year contracts. That sends a message—don’t get too comfortable, and don’t present our tournament or our club in any way except the way we intend.

This gentleman’s agreement has worked fine for both parties, although it’s been strained sometimes. Jack Whitaker got a five-year “suspension” for referring to the Augusta crowd as a “mob.” Gary McCord, a popular and unorthodox CBS commentator, once mentioned that the greens were so slick that they looked like they had been treated with “bikini wax.” That’s the last we saw of him at Augusta National.

Don’t get out of line at the Masters.

Proper behavior is always expected, and deviations will not be tolerated. It’s their place and their rules.

These rules include no running on the premises. So, if your kids are uncontrollable, leave them at home. Cell phones are not allowed; they don’t want you talking during play or taking pictures with them. They also don’t allow iPads or laptops. You will be escorted off the premises if they find you with any of these.

If you are looking to go to the box office and buy a ticket, no dice. You must plan this well in advance and get on a waiting list. That opportunity might never materialize.

Augusta National members can wear their green jackets on the premises but can’t take them with them. If the powers that be have anything to say about it, no one will sell it on eBay.

The champions of this event also have the green jacket bestowed upon them, and they may indeed take it off the premises, but only for one year. They have to receive permission from Augusta National to wear it in public, and they cannot wear it with jeans or shorts or while consuming alcohol. After the year is up, it must be returned to the club to be worn only on the grounds.

Experience and Performance Insights for Masters Golf Betting

The Masters is alone among the majors, playing on the same course every year. The others rotate among several courses.

Therefore, experience in this course definitely means something. Only three players have won the Masters on their first try. Two of those don’t even really count because they were the first two winners of the event—Horton Smith (1934) and Gene Sarazen (1935). The most recent was Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. Of course, experience is no guarantee; Sergio Garcia was a low amateur in his Masters debut, but he was unsuccessful 18 times before winning the tournament in 2017.

You can score on this course. The people at Augusta want it to be challenging but not nearly impossible, as has sometimes been the case in the U.S. Open or PGA. It’s more exciting that way, as players with powerful drivers have reachable par-5s down the back nine.

Driving Distance: A Crucial Factor for Masters Golf Betting Success

And while we’re on the subject, if you’re going to handicap this thing, there are some factors to consider. It takes a certain kind of player to win this event. There is not an abundance of “rough” (or “second cut,” as they call it) at Augusta, which means you are not penalized as much for being inaccurate as you might be on many other courses where majors are played. You are not necessarily rewarded as much for pinpoint accuracy.

Take the case of Calvin Peete, who led the PGA Tour in accuracy for ten straight years. Peete was a strong player, a winner of the Tournament Players Championship, and a two-time Ryder Cup participant. Yet, he never cracked the top ten in eight tries at the Masters.

Why? Because he wasn’t long enough off the tee. You have to be able to hit it long to be a severe contender at Augusta. Or at least, let’s put it this way: if you’re a long hitter, you have an advantage over those who aren’t.

So whether you’re taking out your driver or laying out your wagers, GRIP IT AND RIP IT.