Bookmaker and handicapper talk 2024 Masters, Scottie Scheffler, Tiger Woods
Scottie Scheffler (+400), Rory McIlory (+1000) and Jon Rahm (+1100) are the three biggest betting favorites heading into the 2024 Masters at the infamous Augusta National Golf Club in beautiful eastern Georgia.
Yes, you read that right – Scheffler is currently 4/1 in the market, which implies that he would win this year’s tournament around 20% of the time.
The 27-year-old’s four-dollar consensus price is the lowest at Augusta since Tiger Woods entered the opening Thursday at 7/2 back in 2013. It’s also worth remembering Woods was routinely priced around 2/1 in the early 2000s.
"Going back to last year’s Masters, Scheffler was losing strokes on the green almost every week," Circa Sports director of risk Jeff Davis told FOX Sports from Las Vegas. "Since Pebble Beach, though, he’s gained strokes on the green in five of six events this year. His form has been absurd."
Maybe that mallet putter is the great equalizer.
My buddy Jeff Sealey, a tremendous golf handicapper and host of the "Cutmaker Podcast," has basically been telling everybody he’s ever met to parlay a Scheffler Top-10 finish with another team to win a championship.
For example, Scheffler T10 and the Boston Celtics to win the NBA title pays north of 3/1, while Scheffler T10 wheeled with the Denver Nuggets is 5/1.
If Scheffler does his job, you’ll have options down the road.
In terms of betting guys a little bit further down the board, Sealey fired on Irishman Shane Lowry at 60/1 and grabbed a flier on Chris Kirk at 175/1.
"Lowry’s current form is strong," Sealey said. "He finished 19th, 3rd and 4th in his last three events, and the course form is there at Augusta, too. How about 16th in 2023, 3rd in 2022 and Top 25s in the prior two years?
"And we know he can win a major."
Sealey has what he calls "pizza money" on Kirk to win outright but really likes him in the Top-10 and Top-20 markets, which are available at most shops.
"He’s been through a lot off the course and has rediscovered himself," Sealey explained. "He’s bounced back well and is a solid shot at those prices."
Meanwhile, there’s always a stable of characters that sportsbooks tend to root against throughout these big golf weekends. It usually consists of former champions or extremely popular underdogs or even both.
"It would be nice if Tiger didn’t win," Davis cracked. "The good thing is, we don’t have any disastrous results due to all the Scheffler interest. If the tournament started right now, we’d need to avoid a win by Matsuyama, Wyndham Clark, Sergio Garcia, Tiger or Phil Mickelson.
"Tiger wasn’t exactly super popular for the life of the Masters pool. But earlier this week, we started getting peppered. Everybody bets him the week of these tournaments. We were as high as 180-1, now we’re down to 140-1.
"The cut prop is wildly popular as well. We need Tiger to miss the cut for a decent chunk of change. We’ll see what happens."
Naturally, Sealey found a creative way to bet against Tiger.
"I love Phil against Tiger in matchup play," he said. "I laid -115 and -130 at a couple of spots. I think it should be -165 or -175. It’s a super-interesting market because people tend to get behind Tiger at higher plus prices.
"Sorry, Tiger."
Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and NESN. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. He'll probably pick against your favorite team. Follow him on Twitter @spshoot.
