Masters Picks 2015: Dark-Horse Candidates to Win the Green Jacket

The Masters field seems to get deeper and deeper every year. Since when are there this many golfers in the top 50 who could win this tournament?

Charl Schwartzel, ranked 36th, won the Masters in 2011. The top 20 is ridiculously talented. Finding dark horses wasn’t that hard.

Many of the golfers on this list are favorably ranked but not those first-guess players to win majors, which makes them perfect dark horses. There are some obscure names on the list and some famous ones as well.

Read on to see who stands a chance at winning this first major of 2015, whether it’s their first or their 15th.

Odds come courtesy of Odds Shark. 

Cameron Tringale (250-1)

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press

Last We Saw Cameron Tringale: T5 at the Shell Houston Open

2014 Masters Finish: DNQ

Best Masters Finish: Never played

Cameron Tringale isn’t best known for his game (which is decent), but for disqualifying himself from a tournament. It cost him $53,000 or the cost of a Lincoln that Matthew McConaughey was driving long before someone paid him to drive one.

Tringale had his best finish of the season this past weekend at the Shell Houston Open, tying for fifth behind J.B. Holmes and Jordan Spieth.

Several minutes of Googling reveals only his triumph of the spirit and very little about his game. This was a guy who finished tied for second in the first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Tringale could be like Zach Johnson in 2007, a player nobody knew who came out, challenged and won. In 2007, Tiger Woods in his full-on prime was clawing at Johnson, and Johnson withstood said pressure. Maybe this is the year Tringale surprises people.

It helps to be long at Augusta, and Tringale is definitely not long off the tee. He ranks 163rd with an average drive of 280.8 yards. That’s nearly a 40-yard difference between him and Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 driver on tour with 318 yards per drive.

Bill Haas (100-1)

Last We Saw Bill Haas: Cut from Shell Houston Open

2014 Masters Finish: T20, 2014

Best Masters Finish: T20, 2014, 2013

Bill Haas has made five trips to Augusta National over the years and has produced decent top-20 finishes the past two years.

Haas knows a thing or two about pressure. When he won the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2011, he pulled the string on an amazing scramble on the fringe of the water. See the above video.

Haas had the 18-hole lead after Day 1 in 2014, so he has the capacity to shoot well. Being able to score low early in the tournament sets up for solid weekends. It’s hard to come from way off the pace unless it’s 1996 and Greg Norman has the lead. But it isn’t, and Haas has the capacity to contend.

The mere fact that Odds Shark hasn’t given him any odds means he’s at one heck of a price. He won the Humana Challenge back in January and finished tied for seventh at the Cadillac Championships.

There’s a lot to like in Haas as a dark horse.

Billy Horschel (80-1)

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

Last We Saw Billy Horschel: Third at Valero Texas Open

2014 Masters Finish: T37, 2014

Best Masters Finish: T37, 2014

Lest anyone forget, Billy Horschel won $10 million playing some of the most pressure-packed golf through the four FedEx Cup tournaments. Even when he was paired with the seemingly invincible Rory McIlroy, Horschel never backed down.

When he plays Augusta for the second time this year, the pressure will be nothing new. This time, his game is better too.

"I was prepared mentally last year in the majors," Horschel said in Cameron Morfit’s Golf.com story, "but was my game ready? I don't know, but I think this year is going to be different. My short game is better, my wedge game is getting there. I've seen some really good stuff early in the season."

Horschel had been slumping early in the season, but that third-place finish behind Jimmy Walker at the Valero Texas Open signals Horschel could be a sleeper pick to win the Masters, which would be his first major victory.

Zach Johnson (80-1)

Darren Abate/Associated Press

Last We Saw Zach Johnson: T20 at Valero Texas Open

2014 Masters Finish: Cut

Best Masters Finish: 1, 2007

Zach Johnson, a former winner of this event, must be respected as a former champ, even if he’s changing his putter like he’s changing a pair of socks.

He used a brand new putter at the Valero Texas Open, which was an “impulse decision,” according to Johnson, via Rick Brown of The Des Moines Register.

At Augusta, he’ll be back to something more familiar. It's best not to mess with things when it comes to a major.

"It looks like I'm going to putt with something that I'm accustomed to using," Johnson told Brown.

His putting hasn’t been great this season. As he makes his 11th start at Augusta, he’ll need to clean up that aspect of his game. Johnson ranks 18th in strokes gained from tee to green but ranks 164th with minus-.351 in strokes gained through putting.

If Johnson can find that winning putting stroke, he can finish in the top 15 here, maybe higher.

J.B. Holmes (33-1)

George Bridges/Associated Press

Last We Saw JB Holmes: Winning the Shell Houston Open in a playoff

2014 Masters Finish: DNQ

Best Masters Finish: T25, 2008

Did you see J.B. Holmes striping drive after drive down the left edge of the fairway on No. 18 at the Shell Houston Open? That’s water he flirted with, and he came out of it looking like the fearless bomber he is.

Winners of the Shell Houston Open don’t fare well at Augusta National Golf Club. It’s not exactly like gaffing the Par Three Challenge, but golfers may want to consider it. (Sorry, the money is just too good.) Still, only Anthony Kim finished inside the top 10 at the Masters after winning the Shell Houston Open in the past eight years.

"I'm really excited to get there and play," Holmes said, according to Ryan Ballengee of Yahoo. "My game is in good shape right now. I'm looking forward to it."

Holmes can bomb off the tee. He ranks seventh on tour in distance and is fifth in putting average. Such numbers fare well for players who are looking to win the Masters.

Rickie Fowler (28-1)

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

Last We Saw Rickie Fowler: 71st at the Shell Houston Open

2014 Masters Finish: T5, 2014

Best Masters Finish: T5, 2014

At some point, people have to get over the ostentatious style of Rickie Fowler. Sure, he’s only won once on tour and he’s better known for his creamsicle orange digs on Sunday and his straight-brimming Puma caps, but when it comes to major golf, his game is all substance.

Last year, he finished in the top five in all majors, which could signify a win in the near future. His problem hasn’t been majors—it’s everything else. While golfers like Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth are winning tournaments and contending week-to-week, Fowler has been conspicuously absent on Sundays.

Ewan Murray of The Irish Times wrote, “As Fowler well knows, substance has to override style at some point.”

Fowler’s one redeeming stat this year has been his total putting, which ranks ninth on tour. His driving, approaches and short game have been average at best.

Jimmy Walker (22-1)

Darren Abate/Associated Press

Last We Saw Jimmy Walker: Won the Valero Texas Open

2014 Masters Finish: T8, 2014

Best Masters Finish: T8, 2014

Jimmy Walker is first in FedEx Cup points and is 10th in the Official Golf World Rankings, so why is a dark horse? It sounds like he’s a favorite.

Had he strung together five or more seasons the way he played in 2014, maybe that would be the conversation worth having. At 36, he’s a journeyman, a grinder and one of the best on tour. He's dangerous at Augusta. He’s the only two-time winner on tour so far this year.

Walker won the AT&T Pro-Am, just barely, as he had started to melt down. His swing coach, Butch Harmon, said to Tim Rosaforte of GolfDigest.com, "No one said it was going to be easy. It's not easy to win. He played aggressive all week, and he looked tentative today. It's so hard when you have a big lead."

Walker is one of the most consistent ball-strikers on tour. On top of that, Harmon gave Walker a ringing endorsement for the Masters.

"He's ready for the Masters,” Harmon said.

Does that mean he’ll win? That’s why we tune in.

Tiger Woods (28-1)

Last We Saw Tiger Woods: Withdrawing from Farmers Insurance Open

2014 Masters Finish: DNP

Best Masters Finish: 1, 1997; 1, 2001; 1, 2002; 1, 2005

Injuries, yips and swing changes are three awful playing partners in the Tiger Woods foursome.

When Woods arrived at Augusta, he made straight for the chipping greens. Woods has become a “remorseless chipping machine,” as it were.

It's funny (sad?) that Woods has slipped from perennial favorite to dark horse (to footnote?) at a tournament that he has won four times (but not in 10 years). The No. 1 song in 2005, the last time Woods won the Masters, was Candy Shop by 50 Cent and Olivia.

There's been more than enough locker-room material for Woods if he chooses to read any of it.

ESPN.com’s Jason Sobel wrote:

"

When Woods returns to Augusta next week after a breathless will-he-or-won't-he waiting game that mercifully ended Friday, he won't just be able to tack an article onto the fridge. If he chooses, he can wallpaper an entire house with criticisms of his game and assertions that he'll never win again.

"

Sobel added a brilliant sentence, “Put another way, he was once golf's exclamation point. Now he's the question mark.”

That’s where we are with Woods.

If he is able to finish a round of golf without yanking at his back, and if he doesn’t skull his chips 30 yards over the green, then we could see a competent Woods at Augusta.

One thing is for sure: ESPN sure is glad he’s playing through the first two days. CBS hopes he can make his first cut since the Hero World Challenge. He's a ratings monster.

Every errant shot will be dissected like no other. There may as well be a Go-Pro fixed to his back for any fluctuations in muscle conductivity.

Either way, it’s great to see Woods back on the course. Maybe he can put that exclamation point back on the end of his sentence.

Stats come courtesy of PGATour.com.