2025 Masters Picks, Bets, Course Preview

2025 Masters

• Field: 96 Players

• Cut: Top 50 and Ties after 36 Holes

• First Tee: Thursday April 10

• Defending Champion: Scottie Scheffler

Whether you’ve been grinding golf since there was ice on your window and Hawaii on TV or scrambling last second to find info for Masters pool picks. I got you.

The Masters is the comfort food even hipsters haven’t turned on. And, if you’re feeling alone, no need to worry, Jim Nantz is on the call at Augusta, meaning you have at least one friend. The year’s first Major is finalized at 96 players.

Signature Events have taken some of the shine off seeing the PGA’s best get together and duke it out since it happens every almost every three weeks at this point. That’s fun and everything (kinda), but The Masters carries even more significance now. Didn’t think that was possible. Whether you hate LIV or simply forget it exists; since LIVs inception, it’s really provided extra juice for all the Majors. It’s undeniable. We’ve seen the PGA’s best square off six times already this year, but inject their mirror universe counterparts and now there’s heightened intrigue.

All former Masters champs are in the Augusta field for life. Like the nWo. It’s why LIV signed so many of those guys. Guaranteed access. Other Major winners have a 5-year exemption along with top finishers in Majors a year ago too.

There are 12 LIV members in this year’s Masters. Down from 13 last year: Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Charl Schwartzel, and Phil Mickelson — 13% of the field. Since you likely haven’t paid any attention, LIV has played five events in 2025: Niemann has two wins, Sergio has one, Jon Rahm has yet to finish outside the Top 10 in any LIV event this year, and Phil Mickelson has two Top 10s in his four starts.

Adding to the intrigue has been the consistency (well, the lack thereof) from the PGAs best players:

Scottie Scheffler remains the world’s best player, however, the gap between him and everyone else has shrunk significantly. Scheffler cut his hand over Christmas which led to him missing the first month of play. He’s been excellent since retuning but “excellent” is quite a drop off from his performance over the previous 18 months. Scheffler has no wins in 2025. The last player to win The Masters without notching at least one win coming in was Hideki in 2021. Also, no one has gone back-to-back at Augusta since Tiger in 2001/2002, and only Jack Nicklaus has won three times in four years — 1963/1965/1966.

After struggling in the season opener at Kapalua, Xander Schauffele missed eight weeks with a rib injury. Golf injuries are always secretive so was it an intercostal strain or did he get the Marilyn Manson surgery for increased flexibility: Who can say? He’s played three times since returning with no finish better than T12. He did lead all players in approach in that start at Valspar, though.

Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, and Patrick Cantlay have ranged from amazing to quite good all year, but none have a win since at least 2023.

Ludvig Aberg, Hideki Matsuyama, and Viktor Hovland all have wins in 2025 but have generally looked terrible in almost all their other starts. No player has won The Masters entering play following a missed cut since Angel Cabrera (JAIL SWAG) in 2009. Aberg and Hideki missed the cut in San Antonio this week.

Then there’s Rory McIlroy. Rory’s won twice (Pebble, PLAYERS) and has been far and away the best the player on the planet in 2025. This is the best lead in form of his career entering Augusta and likely his best chance to finally finish golf’s grand slam. But it’s still Rory at Augusta and the demons lurk everywhere.

21 players in the field this week have never played a competitive round at Augusta. The debutant class has fewer elite players like a year ago but features Aaron Rai, Taylor Pendrith, rasmus Hojgaard, Thomas Detry, and Davis Thompson.

This is where I’m required to tell you no debutants has donned sports’ highest sartorial honor since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. That’s 46 year if your subtraction skills are rusty.This isn’t to say all debutants will fail. We’ve witnessed some close calls in recent years. Aberg was runner-up a year ago while Jordan Spieth, Will Zalatoris, and Sungjae Im all claimed second place finishes in their debuts.

It’s far from a secret experience is a massive edge. Augusta is a unique course with its massive elevation changes, and there is generally a learning curve for first-time players who need to figure out the weird breaks and angles on the fly, and a lack of green books for the players and caddies makes that engrained knowledge a clear advantage.

To pile on with the lack of reps at the course, you need to beware of the poor recent Masters’ results too. Beyond the outlier that was Patrick Reed in 2018, the past 25 champions not only have played in the event the previous year but also made the cut. After Reed, a fresh-faced kid who looked like he was wearing his dad’s shirt named Tiger Woods was the last winner to miss the cut, then achieve immortality 12 months later. That was in 1997. And, that sweater actually did belong to Tiger, much like wearing an onion on your belt, that was just the style at the time. One I lived through and hope never comes back in style. Tiger was also an amateur the year he missed the cut.

As much as we want to invest in long shots, the Masters is almost always won by one of the elite players — still won’t stop me btw. Since 2012, Bubba Watson was the lowest-ranked player to claim victory. Bubba was No. 18 in the world rankings when Charl Schwartzel helped slip him into the Green Jacket. Many think of Danny Willett as the ultimate long-shot since he wasn’t well-known to Americans at the time and cashed triple-digit outright win bets for a lot of us bettors, but it’s worth noting the Brit was the 12th-ranked player in the world when he hit his first drive in 2016. Willett didn’t just come out of nowhere either; he was just an unknown to the general public.

MASTERS HOT LINKS

Masters Picks, Research, Winner Trends, Betting Sleepers, Course Preview

Masters Picks, Bets, Predictions — Individual Player Previews

Masters Course Prep, Toughest Shots & Earning an Augusta Invitation with Michael Kim

$5K Trip to Toronto for PME LIVE, Canadian Open & Blue Jays

$1K CASH GIVEAWAY & PRINTABLE MASTERS POOL

DRAFTKINGS/DFS

It’s important to spend a lot of time parsing through the top end of the 2025 Masters board as the winner is almost certainly going to come from that group. If you want to win your bets, an Underdog Draft or a DraftKings tournament, spoiler, you’re going to need to pick the winner. Only immeasurable insights here.

As mentioned, the field of invitees is currently at 96 players and the Top 50 players will make the cut. COVID wiped out the “all players within 10 strokes of the lead” provision at the November Masters in 2020 and they decided that was a rule that should stick. It’s just the Top 50 and ties after 36 holes now. So, over 50% of players are going to make the cut; just because you squeeze all six players in your DFS lineup through the cut line doesn’t really mean much if you don’t have a squad of golfers competing for a novelty check. In year’s previous, a “To Make The Cut” parlay was an incredibly +EV wager. As evidence by us hitting an 84/1 winner in this market in 2024. But with more players in the Masters this year it will be more difficult.

All this other say, of past champions and amateurs at the very bottom of the pricing is a trap. It shouldn’t take Admiral Ackbar to clue you into that information. But every year I see people jamming in Fred Couples to construct a super team with their other five roster spots on DraftKings. Avoid the temptation of those salty savings. There’s simply not enough upside for them to lead your team to victory in one of the large-field DFS contests. Specifically the million-dollar top prize tournaments.

Every now and again a Bernhard Langer or Couples will play pretty well, but it’s not as often as you probably remember. And the results are certainly not as good as what exists in your mind movies. The reality would likely make your eyes rain. Langer lurking on the leaderboard actually happened in 2016. Not, a few years ago. It’s almost been a decade. AND he ended up finishing T24 that year. Langer was T29 in the 2020 Masters but still finished outside of the Top 30 in DraftKings scoring. As the past champions are far less likely to generate the necessary birdie streaks and eagles to rise up the DraftKings leaderboard. Couples finished T50 in 2023 and had missed the cut the previous four seasons.

If you want to compete for the very top prizes on DraftKings this week you’ll likely need the winner, another two players in the Top 5, another two inside the Top 10 and an outlier player who outscores their finishing position.

KEY STATS

• Strokes Gained: Approach

• Course History

• Strokes Gained: Off The Tee

• Strokes Gained: Short Game

• Driving Distance

Mayo’s Key Stats powered by FantasyNational.com

COURSE

• Course: Augusta National

• Yardage: 7,555

• Par: 72

• Greens: Bentgrass

• Average Green Size: 6,486 sq. ft.

• Acres of Fairway: 79

• Acres of Second Cut: 35

• Number of Sand Bunkers: 44

• Number of Holes Water is in Play: 5

PAST WINNERS

• 2024: Scottie Scheffler -11

• 2023: Jon Rahm -12

• 2022: Scottie Scheffler -9

• 2021: Hideki Matsuyama -10

• 2020: Dustin Johnson -20

• 2019: Tiger Woods -13

• 2018: Patrick Reed -15

• 2017: Sergio Garcia -9

• 2016: Danny Willett -5

• 2015: Jordan Spieth -18

• 2014: Bubba Watson -8

• 2013: Adam Scott -9

• 2012: Bubba Watson -10

2024: Scottie Scheffler (-11, +500)

During The Win: Bogey free Thursday, good vibes (was under par through his first three holes in all four rounds), bogey’d holes 3 and 11 in both weekend rounds.

Past Masters’ finishes: 10^th, Win, 18^th, 19^th

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 2^nd (Houston), Win (THE PLAYERS), Win (Arnold Palmer)

Recent Form Entering Event, stats:

• - SG:APP had improved in three straight events

• - SG:P positive in three straight (and five of six)

• - SG:OTT of 2+ in five straight ((and in eight of nine)

2023: Jon Rahm (-12, +900)

During The Win: Double bogey on #1 in Round 1 – after that, he played the front-9 -9 for the week, played the Par 3’s at +2 over the weekend, played #8 at -5 for the week (eagle on Thursday)

Past Masters’ finishes: 27^th, 5^th, 7th

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 39^th (Arnold Palmer), Win (Genesis), 3^rd (Waste Management)

Recent Form Entering Event, stats:

• SG:P over +3.5 in three straight

• SG:OTT the event prior was -6.8, his worst measured round on the PGA

• SG:APP two events prior was +11.9, his best, measured round on the PGA

2022: Scottie Scheffler (-10, +1600)

During The Win: Was -8 for the week on the front 9 (11 birdies and 3 bogeys), played #18 at +4 for the week (two bogeys and a Sunday double), birdied at least one Par 3 in each of the first three rounds

Past Masters’ finishes: 18^th, 19^th

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 55^th (THE PLAYERS), 1^st (Arnold Palmer), 7^th (Genesis)

Recent Form Entering Event, stats

• SG:P over +1.5 in four straight

• SG:OTT was +/- 1.0 strokes in three straight (and six of seven)

• SG:APP was all or nothing (gained over 5.5 or lost over 1.5 in five straight)

2021: Hideki Matsuyama (-10, +4600)

During The Win: Had an eagle in each of the first three rounds (all on a different Par 5), 7 of his 9 bogeys came on the back-9, one bogey on his first 29 weekend holes

Past Masters’ finishes: 13^th, 22^nd, 19th

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 30^th (Valero), MC (THE PLAYERS), 18^th (Arnold Palmer)

Recent Form Entering Event, stats

• SG:P negative in seven of nine

• SG:OTT negative in three of four

• SG:APP of +2 or better in four straight

2020: Dustin Johnson (-20, +850) - November

During The Win: Two bogey free rounds that also included an eagle on #2 (Thursday and Saturday), carded a birdie on each of the Par 3’s during the tournament, nothing exciting on the late holes (par-par-par for Holes 16-18 in Rounds 2-3-4).

Past Masters’ finishes: 2^nd, 10^th, 4^th

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 2^nd (Houston), 6^th (US Open), 1^st (TOUR Championship)

Recent Form Entering Event, stats

• SG:P positive in six straight

• SG:APP over 3 strokes in five of six

2019: Tiger Woods (-13, +1400)

During The Win: Bogey’d #5 in all four rounds (they were four of his eight bogeys for the week), six birdies on eight chances on the back-9 Par 5’s

Past Masters’ finishes: 32^nd, 17^th, 4^th

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 30^th (THE PLAYERS), 10^th (WGC – Mexico), 15^th (Genesis)

Recent Form Entering Event, stats

• SG:APP wasn’t good at THE PLAYERS (-4.0), but was in form prior (+14.6 strokes in three events prior)

• SG:ARG positive in seven straight

2018: Patrick Reed (-15, +5000)

During The Win: -8 on the back-9 Par 5’s through the first three rounds, had at least one bogey on both 9’s in all four rounds, had four birdie streaks during the first two rounds (three on Friday)

Past Masters’ finishes: MC, 49^th, 22nd

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 7^th (Arnold Palmer), 2^nd (Valspar), 37^th (WGC – Mexico)

Recent Form Entering Event, stats

• SG:ARG of 1.5+ strokes in four straight

• SG:P was inconsistent (+4.1, -1, -5.1, +2.1, -1.3, +5.6)

2017: Sergio Garcia (-9, +4000)

During The Win: Bogey free Round 1, zero bogey’s or worse in Holes 14-18 for the week (four birdies and an eagle), made a birdie before a bogey in all four rounds

Past Masters’ finishes: 34^th, 17^th, MC

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 12^th (WGC – Mexico), 14^th (Honda), 49^th (Genesis), Win in Dubai

Recent Form Entering Event, stats

• SG:OTT over four strokes gained in three straight

• SG:P negative in five of six

2016: Danny Willett (-5, +5000)

Past Masters’ finishes: 38^th

Recent Form Entering Event, finishes: 22^nd (Valspar), 3^rd (WGC – Cadillac), Win in Dubai

Recent Form Entering Event, stats

• SG:P gained 7.3 strokes at WGC – Cadillac, second best of his career

• SG:APP positive in four straight (+2.5 strokes or better in three of those four)

NOTES

There’s no need for an in-depth breakdown of Augusta National. If you’d made the leap to read an article on The Masters and scrolled this far down the chances of you knowing the course, even the weird nooks and crannies, is above 96.8%.

In case you’re living the movie Blast From the Past, but for real life, Augusta National is a Par 72, which plays longer than its 7,555 yards due to the incredible amount of elevation shifts across the course. As there is essentially no penal rough on the grounds, it gives a lean to those who have extra distance on the field. It’s not essential to have the ability to contend in a long-drive contest since history has proven otherwise, but it certainly makes the path to eagles and birdies on the Par 5s less resistant.

There have been changes to three of the holes over the past few years. The difficult No. 11 scraped most of the trees from the right-hand side of the hole but they’ll still prove to be a nuisance. The Par 5 15th was been lengthened by 20 yards which led to fewer players going for the green in two. The easiest hole on the course has previously been lengthened by 35 yards from years past. No. 13, the bead on the rosary of Amen Corner, will now have a far more difficult second shot. Most of the field, with a good drive (hell, even with a bad one), was able to attack the green in two, generating eagle opportunities. Eagles have been at more of a premium since.

MORE CHANGES AND INFO ABOUT THE MASTERS

Again, while distance is a massive advantage, it’s not everything. Gaining strokes with the driver is, however. Scheffler and Rahm were second in the field in SG: OTT each of the past two years. Scottie was 9th during his first win. Dustin led all players with the driver in 2020.

Even someone like Patrick Reed, not especially known for his driving prowess, was well above his usual baseline at Augusta in 2018. Reed gained +3.35 strokes off the tee. He’d only gained more than that in two starts in the previous two years before the victory (2017 Travelers; 2017 Memorial). Tiger didn’t gain a ton the year he won (+1.51 SG: OTT), neither did Hideki (+1.8 SG:OTT) but that was enough leverage on the field to make he the rest of their games matter.

If you decide to back one of the non-elite drivers, their irons and short game better be electric all four days.

Over the past two Masters: Bryson, Cam Young, Aberg, Rory, Scheffler, Min Woo, Pavon, Ben An, Rahm, Niemann, and Straka are the only players averaging over 0.75 SG:OTT/Round.

Difficulty at Augusta tends to vary every year based on the conditions. The impact of damp conditions has lessened over the years because of the filtration system. A lot of courses have a SubAir system under the greens to suck out the water and allow the grounds crew to make the putting surfaces as fast or slow as they want. Augusta has those on each green… and under every fairway, so even if it does rain, don’t expect a long period of time with receptive course conditions. Although, there’s little to be done if it simply never stops raining. Like in 2023.

These have been the worst weather rounds of the past 20 years:

Although it’s still days away, fingers crossed, the conditions look pretty fair this year:

WIND TOWER: Daniel Field Airport

There are 41 bunkers and six water hazards and a whole lotta pine straw scattered across the grounds. Unless there’s an untimely tree in the way, however, the pine straw isn’t the end of the world. The bentgrass greens are around Tour average in size; the major difference is the wild undulations. These are some of the most hilly and fastest putting surfaces the players will encounter all year.

It’s worth mentioning, the LIV players, old guys, and international tour players don’t really factor into these stats since there is limited or no shot link data from their tournaments.

These are the putting leaders from Augusta over the last three years:

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Course history plays a more significant factor at Augusta than any other course. That’s not anecdotal either. Course history on a week-to-week basis holds very little predictive value at most events despite the prevailing narrative, but The Masters is an outlier in that regard.

Strokes Gained: TOTAL leaders at Augusta the past five years:

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PICKS

Shane Lowry — After struggling at the beginning of his Masters career, Lowry now has Top 25 finishes in four of his past five Augusta Appearances. The worst of the bunch was a T43 last year; Lowry was fourth in ball striking for the week but lost an ungodly 7.8 strokes with his putter. The most of any of his 178 measured starts on the PGA TOUR.I’m willing to chalk that up as an outlier and focus more on him being fifth of all players in T2G per round over the past three Masters and his four Top 11 finishes over bis past six starts entering this week.

Robert Macintyre — It’s no secret lefties enjoy their time at Augusta (Riviera too), and BOB has been no different. He’s only twice teed it up at Augusta and managed a Top 25 finish in both appearances (T15 in his one start at RIV as well). He now returns to The Masters three years sine his last start a significantly more polished player. Currently sitting No. 17 in the World Rankings, the Scot picked up his first two PGA Tour wins over the last year, played in a Ryder Cup, and enters the years first Major with three Top 11 finishes in his past four starts including a T11/T9 run through Bay Hill and THE PLAYERS against the best fields of the year.

Sergio Garcia — It’s been a struggle for Sergio at The Masters since his win I 2017: Five missed cuts in his last six starts. When he went to LIV it felt like he was kind of calling it career. Then he decided he really wants one last go at the Ryder Cup and drastically improved his game over the last year. He picked up a win on LIV towards the end of last year, and has been statistically the best player on LIV in 2025. He has a win and two other Top 6 finishes, including a solo 3rd at Doral over the weekend. While he’s not in many Majors anymore, he did post his best result in five years at last year’s US Open with a T12 at Pinehurst.