The US Masters, as the first Major of the season, always captures the imagination of the golfing world and the betting public alike. Plenty of questions will be answered at what will be the 87th edition of the Masters.

Can Rory McIlroy finally complete his Major Championship Grand Slam? Can the in-form Jon Rahm become the 4th Spanish Green Jacket winner? Can Cameron Smith become the first LIV Tour member to win a Major?

Or will the likes of Cantlay, Finau, Homa, Hovland, Im, Schauffele or Zalatoris win their first Major title? Fancy a free bet on The Masters? Golf betting at the Major Championships, and especially The Masters, is a complex subject.

Mistakes can be costly; however select the right player or player portfolio and the rewards can be excellent. ft average featuring A1 Penn Bentgrass; Stimpmeter: ft; Course Scoring Average So what do you need to know about Augusta National?

The Augusta National course you can visit the official Masters website here has detailed nuances which certain types of player thrive upon, whereas others struggle with factors such as uneven fairway lies, swirling winds and crazily fast and undulating Bentgrass greens.

Naturally water comes into play much more on the back nine, with 3 key holes around Amen Corner, plus the critical par-5 15th and the par-3 16th both offering scoring opportunities. The pivotal par-5 15th, Firethorn, was also lengthened by 20 yards, with that fairway also being re-contoured.

Usage of short grass, by replacing the first cut, was used on other holes including the 9th and 10th, which are both par-4s. New green surfaces were also added to the 3rd par-4 Flowering Peach , 13th par-5 Azalea and 17th par-4 Nandina holes in However the tinkering never stops at Augusta National and sees more fresh changes to the course and in particular the par-5 13th, Azalea.

Trees have been removed and a new tee box installed adding 35 yards to the hole. So pure yardage is way more important than creating the right angle into the flag.

Other challenges include huge and contoured Bentgrass putting surfaces which can bamboozle the inexperienced and poor putters alike. Birdie chances are restricted to the smallest of target areas, many of which are only accessible by using the natural contours of the green.

The lack of rough around green complexes creates indecision when missing greens, with scrambling percentages suffering as a result. Too many options can confuse players, so course experience and a patient outlook pays. Augusta is definitely a game of two halves. Attack all of the 4 par-5s and a number of shorter par-4s such as the 3rd, 9th, and the 14th.

But the rest of the course needs to be played with maturity and patience. Chasing scores tends to yield bogeys rather than birdies on these holes, so par golf across the majority of holes is more than acceptable.

To win a Green Jacket a player must be aggressive on the 4 par-5s and minimise bogeys across the rest of the property via a mix of metronomic greens in regulation, top-level scrambling and rock-solid short plus distance lag putting.

So what are the key factors to watch out for, what trends need to be taken into account and what statistical skill-sets does a Masters Champion need to have in his locker?

Time was that any player with course experience driving down Magnolia Lane had a real chance of taking the Masters title.

Indeed through saw Zach Johnson, Trevor Immelman, Angel Cabrera and Phil Mickelson capture Green Jackets with a combined two season-to-date top finishes between them. Astonishing but true! The Japanese Number 1 had been very understated in his pre-Masters performances. No tops in 10 PGA Tour appearances hardly had tipsters and punters ploughing their hard earned on the World Number 25, who had actually slipped 5 places in the World Rankings since the start of the year.

Since , Matsuyama aside, in-form players have dominated with Adam Scott in being the only player to feature with as little as a single top as part of a deliberate pre-Augusta schedule that contained just 3 strokeplay tournaments.

He was 3rd though at the WGC at Doral so was clearly peaking for his target event. We need a short-price player in the top 6 of the betting, or players who suit further down the market. Only the Elite of the Game Win Consecutive Green Jackets. Undoubtedly Scottie Scheffler was in the form of his life driving down Magnolia Lane in His first ever PGA Tour win at the WM Phoenix Open in February had been followed up by a couple of massive wins in March, namely the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the WGC Dell Matchplay in his home state of Texas.

He arrived as the freshly crowned World Number 1 and amazingly was only third favourite behind Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas — both of whom has not won in to date.

T3 after Thursday, Scheffler cruised into a 5-shot lead on a windswept Friday where he made it all look all far too easy. It was a lead he never relinquished despite early Sunday pressure from Cameron Smith, who of course went on to win his first major at the Open Championship at St Andrews.

But if Scottie is to repeat in it will be a performance which only Tiger Woods and golfing royalty have managed previously.

Even from an each-way punting perspective, since Tiger defended successfully in only Woods himself in and Jordan Spieth in have finished in the top 5 when defending. We always warn punters who are interested in backing the winner of the tournament immediately prior to a Major Championship.

However there are a few notable exceptions. Last year J. Spaun won the Valero Texas Open at TPC San Antonio, but ultimately joined a list that includes Adam Scott, Paul Casey, Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan, Martin Laird, Matt Jones, J.

Only Kim and Spieth have rewarded their backers with an each-way return. The last player to win the week before winning at Augusta was of course Phil Mickelson who else could it be who in won the Bell South Classic the week before capturing his 2nd Masters title.

Some believe that players of the ilk of Webb Simpson, Kevin Kisner, Tom Kim, Francesco Molinari and Matt Kuchar can still triumph despite their obvious lack of big hitting ability. Naturally Zach Johnson won here in by going for every par-5 in 3 shots, so what is the reality statistically?

Since the course was re-modelled prior to the Masters, shorter hitters such as the aforementioned Kuchar and Jonas Blixt have featured, and saw both Francesco Molinari and Webb Simpson go deep into the back-nine selection process.

The challenge of Augusta , which effectively plays around 7, yards in course length, is like no other. So those who are long and have a high ball flight have a huge advantage. You see, what makes a tangible difference at Augusta is the ability to reach as many of the par-5s as possible in two shots.

The 2nd, 13th and 15th holes are reachable for players who are long enough from the tee and have the in-built aggression to go for it with their approach, rather than laying-up.

Spieth and Willett may be more tactical with their approaches across a season, but when they needed to go for it at Augusta they both had the firepower off the tee and from the fairway to do so.

In Hideki Matsuyama ranked 68th for Distance to Apex, giving him enough power and approach height to access the par-5s. We constantly monitor Strokes Gained data across both PGA and DP World Tours and provide valuable, free insight for golf punters on a weekly basis.

The Masters Tournament for whatever reason do not supply Strokes Gained data for general consumption, but a quick look at the last 3 winners, namely Dustin Johnson , Hideki Matsuyama and Scottie Scheffler , throws up some interesting points when it comes to the shape of their games when driving down Magnolia Lane.

As regular readers will know, I keep a rolling 8-week Strokes Gained tracker across the full PGA Tour and DP World Tour year, tracking Off the Tee, Tee to Green, Around the Green , Putting and Total Strokes Gained Current Form , which we then publish the top 25 of for every single PGA Tour tournament.

Dustin ranked 2nd in the field for SG Approach entering the tournament, with Hideki ranking 13th despite his very indifferent results form. Both were clearly hitting their irons and fairway woods very well.

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