The Masters is finally here and Club 20 are celebrating with one of our biggest golf betting cards including a 500-1 shot! 

We’ve got four guys we really like in the outright (EW) and a few 3-Ball multi’s for Round 1, so make sure the beverages are chilling, ensure the lawns are mowed, chores done, and get some spare batteries for the remote, because for the next four days we are in Augusta, Georgia soaking up ever shot on every hole of the 2020 Masters! 

Course Conditions 

Unlike other majors where the venue changes year to year, we know exactly what we are getting at Augusta and despite being held in November (usually held in April), I’m not expecting it to play vastly different this week. 

This course has enough tech built into it to write you poetry then read it to you, so expect conditions to be close enough to normal, particularly the green complexes where they can get it rolling whatever speed they want, at whatever time.  

Having said that, there is precipitation forecast and coupled with the course likely to play ever so slightly longer than normal (half a club on approach I expect), it could result in guys having a full club extra in hand on approach. 

It is not a course where guys are flicking wedges into greens unless they have played safe and laid up on the Par 5’s, so generally if you like a guy for his approach play, particularly those mid irons, then you like him even more now. 

The decision to go out on split tees could be the real factor this week. Players teeing off the 10th in some drizzle then smacking straight into Amen Corner could put themselves out of the tournament in 4 holes, so know where and when your guys are teeing off from and watch the weather right up until they tee it up tomorrow night (11pm AEDT). 

The Card

Right lets get stuck in, we’ve got 4 guys we like all with the each-way starting with Bubba Watson who is probably the second most in-form golfer behind DJ right now. 

If he could putt, it would be daylight in second. 

In the last 24 rounds he is ranked #1 in this field on approach, #5 off the tee which is amazing given DJ, Wolff, Bryson and Hatton’s last few months. 

So why is he down the betting at 34-1? Well the guy can’t putt for shit. That’s essentially it. He is ranked #79 in this field for strokes gained putting over the last 24 rounds, but putting is something that can snap back and this two-time Masters champ seems to have been building specifically for this event. 

T12 here last year and T5 the year prior to go with green jackets in 2012 and 2014, Bubba knows this course and no one is hitting it better right now. No one. Despite his putrid putting, he knows these greens better than vast majority of the field and if he even has a neutral week with the flatstick, he will contend. Don’t love the 10th tee start but he has the experience to counter. 

Next on the card is Adam Scott who has blown out in the betting due to a general lack of playing and specifically, a Saturday blowout in Houston where he shot 74. Putting a line through that round, his play over the four days was solid (68, 69, 74, 68) enough first up. 

Always super solid at Augusta (2 MC’s in 16 years and finished outside top 30 twice since 2011), hits his long irons as pure as anyone and will not mind conditions a little wetter and softer (as they were when he won in 2013). At 50-1 Scotty looks well worth the investment, has had his hitout at Houston and gets the nicer afternoon start off the 1st. 

Third as we work down is Louis Ooosthuizen who has snagged the marquee group coverage alongside Rahmbo and the muscle-bound behemoth that is Bryson. Not so fussed with Oosty going off the 10th, he has the experience to handle that tough stretch early, so don’t peg the remote at the TV if he is +3 thru 5 Thursday night. 

Oosty is coming off a 3rd at the US Open and is now 5 events into what looks to be career-best putting form. Throwing out the CJ Cup result (T48) and focusing on the T6 (WGC St Jude), T13 (BMW) and T3 (US Open) which combine to compel a bet at Augusta. 

Just needs that ball striking to flick into prime Oosty mode, as his around-the green game (Ranked #17 in this field last 24 rounds) and putting (#13) will carry him into contention. Will not be overawed by the Bryson and Rahm circus, he will just let those two do their wang measuring all round while he hits fairways and greens. 

At 67-1 we’re on board to see his first win on US soil (crazy). 

Lastly we come to a Club 20 fan favourite who is at ridiculous odds. Christiaan Bezeidenhout has been put up at a crazy 500-1 and the lads and ladies at the front bar have jumped on it like a Barnrat on a frosted cupcake. 

Yes, the guy can’t get off the tee, but Augusta is not as punishing off the tee as it seems and if our pal Chris Hoot can find a fairway or 12, well, lookout. His approach play, particularly the mid to long irons, is excellent. They really are world class (gained over 3 strokes on the field at the WGC in Mexico, at the WGC St Jude at at the Memorial, all very strong fields). 

The guy also putts like a demon, gaining 5 stroked at the Memorial and Wyndham recently. Has played sparingly (last event was US Open) which is a concern but down in this range you are looking to catch a guy who needs just one thing to go right for him, and if Hoot can get off the tee for four rounds, he will contend. 

Hopes are very high for Hoot this week, we’re taking him @9’s for a T20 as well. 

3-Balls

Starting our 3-Ball with Oosthuizen  @4.20 to take care of Rahm and Dechambeau. He is putting better than they are and he hits fairways and greens in reg much more, backing the (relatively) mistake-free round from Oosty first up at great odds. 

Rolling that into Ian Poulter for similar reasons, up against Spieth (general shitness) and Woodland (injured) who both have major clouds coming into this week. 

That gets us up to around that 12-1 mark for the two-legger, and that’s a bet we love. But we’re going to get greedy and make a second 3-ball bet, adding another guy to those two for a little extra cheddar cheese. 

How Adam Scott is 3-1 against two guys on debut is beyond me. Sure Hatton and Morikawa are in form, excellent ball strikers, but Scott has a decade and a half of experience on these Augusta greens, he knows his way around the course. Blows me out how he is 3’s on the back of a few bad holes in 72 last week at Houston. 

That takes us up to 36-1. Now we’re talking. 

Well that’s it for the Masters bets, remember if you are making any ‘making a cut’ bets the Masters have a rule where you play the weekend if you are within 10 shots of the leader. 

Was really tempted to bet Bryson to miss the cut @7’s but instead we will just (not-so secretly) hope he does. 

Enjoy the week, hopefully we have some runners come Sunday!