The Masters: 2023 PGA Tour Betting Odds
Starting Thursday from Augusta National with The Masters, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are +700 co-favourites on the golf odds.
Masters week is always one of the best weeks or so on the sports annual calendar because it means that the MLB season has begun and the NCAA Tournament’s men’s national championship game is usually the Monday of Masters week.
To answer your first question: Yes, Tiger Woods will play as he looks to tie Jack Nicklaus with a record sixth green jacket and also set his own all-time mark with an 83rd career PGA Tour win. Tiger’s win in the 2019 Masters was arguably the biggest sports story that year. Woods has played once on Tour this year, finishing T45 at the Genesis Invitational in LA in February. He’s +7500 this week.
Meanwhile, LIV golfers are not allowed to play PGA Tour events, but the majors are different so all who qualified (anyone in the world Top 50 qualifies as one avenue) will tee it up this week, including past Masters winners Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson (three-time winner) Bubba Watson (won twice), Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed. There are 18 players in the 89-man field from LIV Golf. Mickelson skipped the event last year for the first time since 1994. There have only been three LIV events so far this year, so the lack of playing might hurt the chances of those players to win.
There has been one major change at Augusta since last April as the par-5 13th hole, known as Azalea, will play 545 yards at this year’s tournament with the tee moved back. That’s an increase of 35 yards from 2022. The hole’s scoring average was just 4.83 last year – one of the easiest on the course. The new overall length of the par-72 Augusta National is 7,545 yards.
The defending champion is the American Scheffler, who shot 10-under 278 (same winning score as Hideki Matsuyama in 2021) for a three-shot victory over McIlroy, who chipped in on his 72nd hole for an electric final round of 64. It was Scheffler’s first major championship win, and he joined Ian Woosnam in 1991 as the only players to win a major — the Masters in both cases — in their debut at No. 1 in the world.
Rain could be a factor all four days of competition. There will be 16 Masters debutants this year.
The Masters Golf Odds
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (+700) looks to become the first player to go back-to-back at Augusta National since Tiger Woods in 2001-02. Scheffler had finished Top 20 as well in his first two Masters. He has two wins this year already. Rory McIlroy (+700) tries again for the career grand slam. He has a handful of Top 10s here, including last year’s runner-up. McIlroy has a win and runner-up on Tour already this season.
Jon Rahm is +900 with Jordan Spieth +1600, Patrick Cantlay +2000 and Justin Thomas +2000. Rahm has three wins already this year but had to withdraw last month from the Players and was outed quickly in the recent Match Play. Rahm hasn’t missed the cut in six Masters with four Top 10s. Spieth won here in 2015. Neither Cantlay nor Thomas has won at Augusta. Thomas was T8 last year, while Augusta doesn’t seem to suit Cantlay’s game.
Mike Weir is the lone Canadian to win this tournament (and a rare lefty overall to capture the Masters), doing so in a 2003 playoff over Len Mattiace. George Knudson was one of three runners-up to George Archer in 1969.
Corey Conners was the top finisher last year at T6, while Mackenzie Hughes was T50. Weir missed the cut. Conners won the Valero Texas Open on Sunday for his second career Tour victory and is +4000 this week. Conners has finished in the Top 10 in three consecutive Masters. Mackenzie Hughes is +25000, Adam Svensson +25000 and Weir +200000.
The Masters Golf Predictions
We’ll take Conners for another Top 10 here, but McIlroy (+700) finally wins the green jacket.
