Masters 2024 Betting Preview

The 2024 Masters kicks off in the second week of April, with Masters week officially starting on April 8. The golf tournament runs from April 11–14, 2024 from Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, with the final round taking place on Sunday, April 14. 

As of this writing, the event is still months away, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start looking at golf odds NOW to see if there is the chance we can lock in some good closing line value (CLV). 

Obviously there are a lot of tournaments between now and the Masters — and players still have plenty of time to build some form. However, since this event is played at the same course and in the same time slot year-over-year, there are some strong trends we can look at to help us identify some potential strong bets for this year’s event. 

Some quick facts about the 2024 Masters:

• This year’s version will the 88th running of the event.
• The field for the 2024 Masters is currently set at 84 participants but that number could still grow as player movement in the OWGR could allow more qualifiers (see below).
• This year marks the first time that the NCAA Division I Men's Individual Champion will get a spot in the field, however Fred Biondi (2023 winner) turned pro and thereby gave up his Masters invite. .
• The Masters awarded three special exemptions in 2024:

Joaquin Niemann was No. 18 in the world when he joined LIV two years ago, but has fallen outside of the top 50 in the OWGR as LIV events don’t award OWGR points. He also won the Australian Open in December 2023 and a LIV event in early 2024. 

Ryo Hisatsune, 21, was named European tour rookie of the year for 2023 and won the French Open lats season while Thorbjorn Olesen has won twice over the past year and sits just outside the top 50. 

As of now, players who have yet to qualify can only qualify in two different ways:

• Land in the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) that is published during the week prior to the current Masters Tournament.
• Win a PGA tournament that awards a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, from now until the current Masters.

Masters 2024 odds, predictions and preview 

The Masters is the first major of the season and has the largest lead-up time in terms of how many regular season events are played directly before the event begins. That means there is also plenty of time for line movement in the betting odds. 

This season, we have seen some movement amoung the top three players, albeit the moves have been very small. Below the top players (Rahm, Scheffler, McIlroy) there has been a little more significant movement. 

Viktor Hovland’s odds have fallen (he was +1400 on January 1, 2024 but is now +1200 at most sportsbooks) and while his odds could move back up after a slow start, any form shown by him between now and April 8 would likely mean a move back down to +1200 or lower. Hovland’s strong finish to 2023 (Tour Championship winner) and the fact he performed well at Augusta last year (T7 in 2023) means he’ll be on a lot of bettor’s short lists. 

By contrast, Jordan Spieth has seen his odds inflate slightly since the start of 2024. He opened the new year at +1600 but is now up to +1800 at places. The 2015 Masters champion has had some solid showings to begin 2024 but with no wins yet (and his last win coming in April 2022) he may drift longer in the odds unless he starts challenging more regularly. 

Masters betting trends

Below are some general trends we have seen from past Masters winners. Trends aren’t a great thing to follow blindly in handicapping but can be useful for tie-breaking scenarios and tend to carry more weight in golf betting at events where course history plays a bigger role. 

Below are some of the more relevant Masters betting trends for 2024. 

Players who miss the cut the year prior at the Masters

• Since 1996, only one player has won the Masters after missing the cut at Augusta the previous year (Patrick Reed 2018).

First time major winners at the Masters

• Twelve of the last 20 winners at Augusta have been first-time major winners.

Age of Masters winners

• Over the last 20 years, the average age of the Masters winner is approximately 31 years old. 
• Nine of the last 10 Masters winners have been under the age of 40 (exception: Tiger Woods 2019).

Course experience of Masters winner

• The last debutant (first-time Masters starter) to win at Augusta was Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979
• Fourteen of the previous 15 winners had achieved at least a top-30 finish at Augusta National in a previous season (before winning)
• Eight of the last 11 winners of the Masters had achieved a top-five finish at the Masters in a previous season (before winning)

Recent form of Masters winners

• The last 10 winners of the Masters had all recorded a top-20 finish in at least one of their last three events.
• Nine of the last 10 winners of the Masters had recorded a top-five in one of their last five events.
• Seven of the last nine winners had recorded a T2 or better in the four months prior to winning at Augusta.
• Four of the last six winners had recorded a T2 or better in one of their previous three PGA starts before winning at Augusta.

How many back to back winners have there been at the Masters?

• It has only happened three times: Jack Nicklaus 1965-66, Nick Faldo 1989-90 and Tiger Woods 2001-2022.