The Masters Betting Preview

The Masters Betting Preview by Simon Says – Best Sports Betting.

The 81st edition of The Masters golf tournament starts this Thursday (6th April) at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. For four days the very best will compete over 72 holes for a chance to wear the prestigious green jacket and forge an honourable place in Masters history. Golf’s greatest grand slam comprises the smallest field of all four majors with just 95 players invited. Invitees include the current Top 50 in the world, plus winners of selected tournaments and the other three majors over the last five years. Let’s get into The Masters Betting Preview.

Winners of The Masters from the last 5 years:

2016 – Danny Willett  (UK)
2015 – Jordan Spieth (USA)
2014 – Bubba Watson (USA)
2013 – Adam Scott (AUS)
2012 – Bubba Watson (USA)

The Betting
The Masters is by far the best major to take a trends-based approach to betting as it’s the only one of the four played at the same venue in Georgia each year. It’s a tournament which has over the years produced winners at the very top of the game, but that doesn’t mean value cannot be found elsewhere – especially in the each-way, Top 10 and Top 20 markets.

Going into the 2017 event, the sublimely in-form Dustin Johnson is trying to win his fourth consecutive tournament. He’s undoubtedly a worthy favourite at odds of 6.50 (Sportingbet) However, it may be worth nothing that the last player to go into The Masters as World No.1 and take home the green jacket was Tiger Woods in 2002. Oh Tiger… what in Jehovah’s name became of you?

McIlroy, of course, has unfinished business at Augusta being the only major he is yet to win, while guys like Justin Thomas and Hideki Matsuyama will be hoping to consolidate fantastic seasons at this year’s Masters. Rahm is the shit-hot 21-year-old everyone’s talking about, who must have a decent chance at winning, but without much experience in the majors – and going off at odds as short as 26.0 – he’s not tempting me enough to part with my hard-earned bucks.

A golf betting approach worth considering
There are many ways to approach your golf betting. The method I use most often is to take a selection of bets across the spectrum of risk-reward. I tend to avoid backing strong favourites, i.e. Johnson, Spieth or McIlroy as there is just too much that can go wrong in a game of golf and luck almost always plays some part. You might very well back the best performing golfer at a short price that weekend and still end up losing more often than you might in many other sports, simply due to ‘bad breaks’ (wind, near-holed putts, etc.)

Form is a very important consideration in golf betting and this nearly always shows in the odds bookmakers offer on any tournament. If a player wins a tournament one week, his odds will most likely be drastically slashed for the next one. Now although it’s always likely that a player will perform reasonably well the week following winning a tournament, this also means that the odds of other players are pushed out and there is value to be snapped up with excellent players who haven’t performed as well for the last short while.

Course form is something to keep an eye on in this regard. Although a player hasn’t been in the best overall form, he might play a particular course very well (perhaps he lives nearby or has often shot low scores at the course over the years). Because the Masters field is relatively small, there‘s also more chance of hitting each-way, Top 10 or Top 20 bets and you might end up finding some really good players at much bigger prices than you normally would.

My suggested bets
Tyrrell Hatton to win (each way – 5 places) @ 51.00 (Sportingbet)
Hatton is an amazing young talent who is playing very consistently at the moment. He’s flown up from Number 98 in the world rankings last July to Number 15 in less than 9 months.

Ryan Moore to win (each-way – 5 places) @ 151.00 (Sportingbet)
These are crazy odds for a golfer who might be over his purple patch, which started in the middle of last year, but he’s also very consistent and nearly always a contender come Sunday.

Bubba Watson to beat Justin Thomas over 72-holes @ 1.9 (Sportingbet)
Both of these players are struggling for form. Thomas has won two trophies already this year but he’s also missed two cuts in his last 5 tournaments. Bubba feels at home at Augusta having donned the green jacket twice in the last 5 years, so I’m going to ignore his patchy current form and trust in experience.

Best of luck and I hope you enjoyed this The Masters Betting Preview.
Simon

Here is a little something to get you in the mood for the 2017 Masters!

Louis Oosthuizen’s tee-shot on the Par 3 16th hole eventually found the bottom of the cup on Sunday at The Masters 2016. His ball bumped into that of JB Holmes who had just moments earlier played a beautiful shot himself. Snooker tactics on the golf course. Beautiful.