Preview
Tune in this Thursday for the 2024 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. This past weekend at the Valero Texas Open, the 22-year-old lefty Akshay Bhatia won in a playoff over Denny McCarthy. Bhatia is an example of a young rising golfer with an opportunity to place high in his first career Masters, his first major appearance being in 2021 at the U.S. Open when he tied for 57th place. The odds for this year’s Masters can be viewed via DraftKings Sportsbook.
Analysis
Tiger Woods withdrew from the 2023 Masters after seven holes in the third round. Previously, the legendary golfer won the 2019 Masters and is hoping to win his sixth green jacket to tie Jack Nicklaus. Woods has a history of injuries but a ton of course experience.
Rory McIlroy will have another opportunity to secure the green jacket. He finished third at the Valero Texas Open but is still hungry for a major championship win. The Irish golfer hasn’t won a major since 2014. In 2022, he finished second at the Masters but missed the cut last year at Augusta. In the PGA Championship, he tied for seventh in 2023 and finished eighth in 2022. In the U.S. Open, he finished second in 2023 and tied for fifth in 2022. At the Open, he tied for sixth in 2023 and finished third in 2022. McIlroy will always be a name to consider in the top 10 of a major championship, but can he get it done on Sunday and play a perfect clean round?
The former PGA Championship winner might become the sixth player in PGA Tour history to complete the grand slam. He’s shot par or worse in the first round of the last five masters. This is McIlroy’s 16th career Masters start.
Jordan Spieth finished 10th at the Texas Open and is another name on the board to look out for this weekend. The 2015 FedEx Cup champion shot a 66 in the final round of the 2023 Masters and has six rounds of 66 or better in his career at Augusta National. Tiger Woods has eight rounds of shooting 66 or better and the golden bear, Jack Nicklaus, has six. In Spieth’s ten starts at the Masters, he has the lowest career scoring average of 70.7, McIlroy has 71.5 in 15 starts and Rickie Fowler has 71.5 in 10 starts.
Last year’s winner Jon Rahm may become the first repeat Masters champion since Woods in 2001-02. The Spanish golfer left for LIV Golf shortly after his win in 2023 and hasn’t played many rounds this year. He had four top-nine finishes in his last five Masters appearances. Rahm has the opportunity to become the second golfer in the last 15 years to defend a major title. Golf fans questioned whether LIV players could make the cut in last year’s Masters. Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka tied for second in the 2023 Masters, with Koepka leading through the first 3 rounds of the 2023 Masters shooting -12 under. He tied for the third lowest 36-hole score in Masters history and lost to Rahm down the stretch on the back nine. Koepka won his fifth major at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.
Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Åberg rank fourth and ninth in the Official World Golf Rankings. Clark is the reigning U.S. Open champion and finished second at last year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. The 24-year-old Åberg won the RSM Classic in November and has seven top-10 finished in 23 starts on tour. He, alongside first-timers like Bhatia, are in play to be the first first-time Masters winner since 1979 when Fuzzy Zoeller won.
Last, but certainly not least, is Scottie Scheffler. The 27-year-old won the 2022 Masters and has the best odds to win this year’s Masters tournament. Scheffler leads the tour in scoring average (69.0) and birdie or better percentage (31.4%). Viktor Hovland is the reigning FedEx Cup winner, but his season hasn’t exactly panned out like he wanted it to. Hovland has zero top-15 finishes in his last five starts and ranks 119th in strokes gained compared to last year when he ranked eighth.
What’s At Stake
This year’s purse for the Masters is $18 million, the same as the 2023 Masters Tournament. The winner receives 600 FedEx Cup points, 100 world ranking points and an automatic exemption to the PGA Tour plus the other three major tournaments for the next five years. The winner also gets to choose the menu for the following year at the Champions Dinner and, most importantly, receives the green jacket.