TOO SCOTT TO HANDLE

Red-hot Scheffler good fit for another green jacket

JON RAHM won his first Masters green jacket last year by four shots from Brooks Koepka and Phil Mickelson, with Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth and Russell Henley in a tie for 4th place.

The first four places were thus filled by LIV members.

Rahm’s defection to the Saudi backed golf league was a seismic shock and it’s difficult to assess his form as this will be his first time to play against his former PGA Tour colleagues.

The Spaniard has yet to win since joining LIV.

Since 2006, only one defending champion has recorded a top 10 finish the following year (Spieth was second in 2016), so at odds of just 10/1, it’s hard to back Rahm.

The clear 7/2 favourite is World No1 Scottie Scheffler, who won his first green jacket in 2022, on 10 under par, three shots clear of a fast-finishing Rory McIlroy and five ahead of Shane Lowry and Cameron Smith.

Scheffler has had an almost perfect lead-in to the season’s first major with wins at the Arnold

Palmer Invitational and The Players

Championship followed by a second place at the

Houston

Open on his most recent outing.

This will be

McIlroy’s 10th attempt to complete a career

Grand Slam.

His record at

Augusta is solid, with eight top 10s in his past eleven appearances, though he missed the cut for the first time last year.

McIlroy is joint second favourite with Rahm at 10/1 and although he managed a distant third place last week in Texas — his first top 15 result in his last six tournaments — he is best watched this week.

As usual, many eyes will be on Tiger Woods at Augusta.

Woods defied the odds by coming back from multiple back surgeries to win in stunning fashion in 2019.

He’s priced as high as 150/1 to perform another golfing miracle, but it simply won’t happen.

LIV

Thirteen LIV Tour players line up this week, including seven former Masters winners, and they shouldn’t be overlooked.

Watch out for Koepka,

Cameron Smith and Patrick Reed.

Koepka had a twoshot lead going into last year’s final round but could not match Rahm’s brilliance. In Koepka has played in 35 majors. He’s won five, has seven top five finishes and was in the top 10 13 times.

He loves the big stage and looks value at 18/1.

Smith made history at Augusta in 2020 by becoming the first player in the 85-year history of the tournament to shoot all four rounds in the

60s — but still finished second to Dustin Johnson.

Smith has three top 5s and another top 10 in his five outings at Augusta and is attractively priced at 33/1.

Reed loves Augusta too.

He won the green jacket in 2018, top 10s followed in 2020 and 2021 and he was fourth here last year.

Reid is the least likely of that trio to win this week but could squeak into a place at odds of 80/1.

Hideki Matsuyama is another Augusta specialist.

Aside from his memorable victory in 2021, the Japanese superstar has just one finish outside the top 20 on this tricky course in the last nine years.

He won the Genesis Invitational in February on his fourth most recent start and has since added top 7s at the Players Championship and Valero Texas Open, so he is very much in form.

Wyndham Clark and Ludvig Aberg are strongly fancied to become the first debutant to

Scottie Scheffler Brooks Koepka Hideki Matsuyama

win at Augusta since Fuzzy Zoeller achieved the feat back in 1979.

Both are priced at 28/1 and of the pair, preference is for Clark, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February and found just Scheffler too good at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players

Championship.

Clark is the reigning US Open champion and has all the skills required to win a green jacket.

For Aberg, this will not only be his first Masters appearance but also his first ever appearance in a major championship.

It would be one of the greatest achievements in golfing history should the talented Swede hit the major’s jackpot at his very first attempt.

Shane Lowry missed three of his first four Masters cuts but since then has not been out of the top 25 and recorded a career best third place finish

Wyndham Clark Cameron Smith Shane Lowry Sahith Theegala Russell Henle Patrick Reed

in 2022, despite carding a double and a triple bogey along the way.

Lowry’s world-class short game always gives him a decent chance of success at Augusta and his recent form has been encouraging too with a third place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March preceded by a fourth place finish at the Cognizant Classic.

At 50/1, Lowry looks a good value each way bet.

Impressive

Also available at 50/1 is Sahith Theegala, who made an impressive first appearance at the Masters with a ninth place finish in 2023.#

This exciting prospect arrives at Augusta in excellent form, with three top 10s in his last five starts while of the bigger priced players, Henley makes lots of appeal at odds of 80/1.

Henley finished in a tie for fourth at Augusta last year and he is in flying form this year, with two top four finishes in his last three PGA Tour starts.

The 34-year-old from Macon, Georgia, making his eighth Masters appearance, has flown under the radar up to World No 17 and looks overpriced.