US Masters Golf Preview, Betting Tips and favourites

Golf’s most coveted prize, the US Masters is up for grabs this week from the stunning Augusta National. This is the only golf Major played on the same course every year making it an interesting tournament to bet on as current form doesn’t necessarily come into it but form on current course. Golf365 preview the iconic tournament giving their tips and favourites for the much anticipated event.

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No tournament dwells in the past quite like the Masters, lapping up traditions (both genuine and newly minted) with a passion that is close to fetish, but one date in its history will loom larger than ever over the 2017 edition and with good reason: it is 20 years since Tiger Woods made his professional debut at Augusta National.

It was not only that he opened the 1997 tournament with a 4-over-par front nine 40, before returning in a sizzling 30 strokes. Or that rounds of 66-65 opened up a 9-shot lead after 54 holes. Or that his final-round 69 allowed him to post 18-under, fully 12 shots clear of his nearest rival, bettering the previous record for winning margin by three. It was not even that at the age of 21 he had become the youngest winner of the Masters.

It was greater than all of this because Tiger Woods had obliterated the field in a southern golf club which prides itself on southern standards. To say that Woods’ first major victory was iconic and emblematic would be a massive understatement. Only 22 years before Lee Elder had become the first African-American to play the Masters – and had endured death threats doing so.

The 1997 Masters was a personal triumph for Woods. A personal triumph, too, for his father Earl who had driven his son towards greatness. It was also a wider triumph for society.

Quite how much has changed since is debatable (there were 12 African Americans on tour in 1976, the year Woods was born; this year there are two), but the visceral power of Woods’ breakout success will never wane.

His ongoing battle with back pain prevents him playing this year and it is maybe as well – this would not be the time to witness his struggles to regain form. Who will join him as a winner of the Masters? Whose arms will Danny Willett slip the green jacket onto come Sunday night?

Augusta National

There is probably no course on the planet which television golf viewers know as well as Augusta National. We’re intimate with the roars of the patrons on the back nine and with the eerie silence of the 12th green and 13th tee. We know that the par-5s offer opportunity, but also threat. We know the front nine par-3s are long and exacting, and that the back nine par-3s are short and exacting. We know the greens are lightning quick, the fairway grass is mown towards the tee, and the tee boxes are moved further back every year. We know there is pomp, ceremony and more than a touch of absurdity – and we love it all.

Profile of the winner

The Masters field is the smallest of the four majors and, when looking for the likely winner, it can easily be narrowed down even further.

Of the last ten winners all were younger than 40, all had broken par at Augusta over 18 holes and eight of them were ranked top 30 in the world. Glancing deeper into the stats nine of the 10 had proved they had the long game or par-saving skills for the course by ranking top three for Greens in Regulation or Scrambling at Augusta (seven of them the year before their win) and seven of the 10 had proved their flatstick was hot by ranking top three for Putting Average at a tournament in the year of their win. Rather more obliquely, nine of the ten had made the last 16 of the WGC World Match Play the year before their Masters win (for what that is worth – it does have the whiff of coincidence about it).

The stats back up what we instinctively know: the winner is likely to be high quality but not too old, needs to understand and have experience of the contours of the course, and be in possession of a hot putter. The stats can always be confounded, but to do so would take a special effort.

US Masters 2017 Favourites

Dustin Johnson

The world number one drives down Magnolia Lane having completed a hat-trick of wins so his form could not be stronger, the big question is whether he has the game for Augusta National. Always a supreme driver of the ball and a silky putter, his recent success has utilised a wonderfully sure touch with the short irons. Is his fade a problem though? We’ll see. His first five visits to Augusta reaped only one top-30 finish but he was sixth in 2015 and fourth last year – he’s getting to grips with the test.

Johnson 6/1 Bet Now

Jordan Spieth

Clearly adores Augusta National: on debut in 2014 he led during the final round before a charging Bubba Watson overhauled him, he won in 2015, and then led again with 9 holes to play last year, before imploding. Will those memories haunt him? Might be worth noting that he was on something of a long-term slide 12 months ago, adding rounds of 74-73-73 to his first-round 66. But be warned: from right back in his amateur days, Spieth has a history of making a mess of a tournament – and atoning very quickly.

Spieth 8/1 Bet Now

Rory McIlroy

McIlroy also has his demons to face at Augusta National, courtesy of a yanked tee shot at the 10th in 2011 which turned a one-shot lead into a two-shot deficit on his way to a final-round 80. Like Spieth, McIlroy knows how to bounce back – two months later he used that experience to catapult himself to US Open success. His high ball flight is a perfect fit for the course and he has posted top-10 finishes at Augusta in each of the last three years, but is yet to mount a concerted challenge since 2011.

McIlroy 8/1 Bet Now

Rickie Fowler

Arrives in superb form, having posted five straight top-20 finishes, including victory in the Honda Classic and tied third last week in Houston. His name is being touted by many and yet the course form asks tough questions. His first three visits failed to earn a top 25, fifth in 2014 showed promise, but the T12 the following year was thanks to a low final round with the heat off and he posted rounds of 80-73 to miss the cut last year.

Fowler 22/1 Bet Now

Hideki Matsuyama

The Japanese star was imperious through the end of 2016 and start of this year, winning five times in nine starts, including a first WGC title, Tiger’s Hero World Challenge and the Phoenix Open. He immediately became talked of as Asia’s next major championship winner. Since then, however, he has struggled with no top-20 finish in his last four starts. Had issues on his early visits to Augusta (twice carding 80), but fifth in 2015 and seventh last year. Can he rediscover his mojo?

Matsuyama 20/1 Bet Now

Jon Rahm

Winner of January’s Farmers Insurance Open and fifth in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am so has form on major championship tracks this year. Third in the Mexico Championship and runner-up in the WGC World Match Play so in scintillating form up against the world’s best. A 22-year-old potential superstar who trades off his Spanish flair – how could he not be among the favourites? One problem: only three debutants have won the Masters. The first was inevitable and the last was Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

Rahm 22/1 Bet Now

Marc Leishman

Four visits to Augusta, three missed cuts – it doesn’t suggest he’s a good fit, but the exception is interesting because he was not only fourth in 2013, he also played the final round alongside fellow Aussie Adam Scott as he became the first winner of the green jacket from down under. Two years ago he didn’t play here because his wife was diagnosed with a serious illness from which she is now recovered. Won the Arnold Palmer Invitational so in fine form.