The Masters Betting Analysis & Predictions

Event: The Masters
Where: Augusta National
Watch: ESPN, CBS
When: April 6-9

The PGA Tour officially hits the really fun part of the season this week with the first major tournament of the season, the Masters down at Augusta National. An exclusive field of 89 that includes some of those outcasts who bolted for the LIV Tour tee it up this week for shares of a $15 million purse and, of course, one of those iconic green jackets.

Last weekend Canadian Corey Conners shot an opening-round 64 on his way to 15-under par and the win at the Texas Open in San Antonio. In the process Conners pocketed $1.6 million, earned 500 FedEx Cup points and provided his financial backers with a payout of +2000.

Sam Stevens placed second at -14; Sam Ryder and Matt Kuchar tied for third at -13; Patrick Rodgers, who led for a while Sunday, faded and finished fifth at -11; Chez Reavie, Lee Hodges and Byeong Hun An tied for sixth at -10; An-drew Novak took ninth at -9; and Ben Martin, Hayden Buckley, Rickie Fowler, Padraig Harrington and Chris Kirk tied for 10th at -8.

Of last week’s top 10 only Conners and Kirk are playing this week at Augusta. And both look like tempting longshot bets, the way they’ve been playing late-ly.

We continued with our chilly betting run through the last few tournaments last week, missing the money with our top three picks. Kirk (28/1 to win) actually opened with a 67 and popped up on the first page of the leaderboard Sunday but faded to a T-15; Hideki Matsuyama (22/1 to win) finished T-15 at -7; and 46-year-old Charley Hoffman (20/1 to finish in the top five) finished T-22 at -6, five shots out of fifth place.

As for this week Augusta National, home to this event since its inception back in 1934, plays to a par-72 at around 7,475 yards. It’s not the toughest course around but maybe more than any other – on this continent, at least – “local knowledge,” especially around the greens, goes a long way.

Last year Scottie Scheffler, in the midst of an epic early-season run, grabbed the lead near the end of the second round and never relinquished it, winning the Masters by three shots over Rory McIlroy. Shane Lowry and Cam Smith tied for third; Collin Morikowa finished fifth; Conners and Will Zalatoris tied for sixth; Justin Thomas and Sungjae Im tied for eighth; and Cam Champ and Charl Schwartzel tied for tenth.

Each week we take a look at the online betting sites and highlight what we be-lieve to be some of the best golf betting values on the board, with a few free picks to click. Odds to win and pairings for this week can be found at Bovada. Here’s our take on some of the field at this week’s Masters tournament.

Defending champion Scheffler and McIlroy, who’s never won this event, are posted as the co-favorites on Bovada’s Masters betting board at +700. Jon Rahm, who’s also yet to win the Masters, is the third choice at +1000 while 2015 Masters champion Jordan Spieth follows at +1400. From there every-body else is getting at least +2000.

For our top pick for this week we look to last week’s winner.

Corey Conners (+4000 to win)

Conners just won the tournament at TPC San Antonio last week by shooting three rounds in the 60’s. He also finished T-10 here at the Masters in 2020 (af-ter shooting a first-round 74), T-8 in 2021 (with a 74 on Sunday) and T-6 last year. On the whole Conners is 16-under par over his last three Masters. For a guy who’s playing well as of late and has played well at Augusta before 40/1 looks like a great price.

Tony Finau (+2500 to win)

We thought this guy might win the Masters a few years ago before he turned an ankle celebrating a hole-in-one during the par-3 contest. He actually finished T-10 that year, 2018, then took a T-5 here in 2019 and a T-10 in 2021. And while he isn’t making a lot of noise so far this year his worst finish in five tourna-ments is a T-24 at Bay Hill. One of these days Finau is going to win a Major; if he can just survive Wednesday’s par-3 contest he might do it this weekend.

Will Zalatoris (+550 to finish top-five)

This former Wake Forest Demon Deacon finished fourth at Riviera back in February but is just kind of plodding along since. But he’s better than that. Al-so, in two career starts at Augusta he finished second in 2021 and T-6 last year, with seven of eight rounds of par or better. This guy’s due for a good week and nobody will be surprised when he pops up on the Masters leaderboard this weekend.

Elsewhere among Bovada’s myriad of Masters bet offerings for this week a playoff – which the Masters hasn’t had since 2017 – is listed at +400; a hole-in-one during the first round is getting +1000; and the over/under on Tiger Woods’ final placing sits at 37.5.

The first groups for this week’s Masters tournament tee off at 8 am ET Thurs-day morning.