Masters 2016: Latest Betting Odds and Tips for Major Golf Tournament
To the surprise of nobody, Jordan Spieth heads into the Augusta National Golf Club as one of the odds-on favorites to win the 2016 Masters.
Spieth isn't alone in that regard, but many will expect him to defend his crown and add a second green jacket to his closet.
Here are the odds for the top contenders at the Masters, courtesy of Odds Shark, and two tips to consider when deciding on whom to throw your support behind.
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| Jordan Spieth | 7-1 |
| Jason Day | 7-1 |
| Rory McIlroy | 7-1 |
| Bubba Watson | 10-1 |
| Adam Scott | 10-1 |
| Rickie Fowler | 12-1 |
| Phil Mickelson | 14-1 |
| Dustin Johnson | 18-1 |
| Justin Rose | 22-1 |
| Henrik Stenson | 25-1 |
| Louis Oosthuizen | 25-1 |
Masters Betting Tips
Don't Write Off a Struggling Star
Momentum is a somewhat nebulous concept in sports; it can matter as much or as little for whoever is using it to support his or her argument. In the case of the Masters, a golfer's results in the tournaments leading up to the first major of the year don't point definitively one way or the other.
Here's how each of the last five Masters winners entered the tournament:
| 2015 | Jordan Spieth | 10 | 8.4 | 2 | 7 |
| 2014 | Bubba Watson | 8 | 9.9 | 1 | 6 |
| 2013 | Adam Scott | 4 | 19 | 0 | 1 |
| 2012 | Bubba Watson | 7 | 10.3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2011 | Charl Schwartzel | 5 | 26.4 | 0 | 0 |
While Spieth and Bubba Watson both headed into Augusta on major hot streaks the last two years, Adam Scott and Charl Schwartzel weren't exactly firing on all cylinders.
Jason Day will be many fans' favorite to win the green jacket in 2016. He's arguably playing better than anybody else on the PGA Tour this year, which the tour's Twitter account highlighted following the WGC-Dell Match Play:
The smart money should be on Day, but don't talk yourself out of picking a different golfer based solely on how this season has unfolded. Rory McIlroy has just two top-10 finishes in seven events and missed the cut altogether at the Honda Classic.
"These high scores, I know it's nothing to do with my game, really. It's more mental," McIlroy said last month, per the Telegraph's James Corrigan. "I'm beating myself up over mistakes. If I can just be a bit better mentally, then hopefully that will be the key for me."
As much as the four-time major champion hasn't looked himself in 2016, all he needs to do is put four strong rounds together in order to win the Masters.
Just as Day's success doesn't give him a tangible advantage over the competition at Augusta, McIlroy's struggles don't immediately put him at a disadvantage.
Think Internationally
Not surprisingly, Americans dominate the list of Masters champions, with the United States accounting for 59 victories since the first tournament in 1934. To put that into perspective, South Africa is second on the list with five, and the rest of the world has combined to earn 15 wins.
While that record speaks for itself, rarely do American golfers enjoy the spotlight for too long. After Tom Watson won a green jacket in 1977, only once have Americans won the Masters more than two years in a row. Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods exchanged the title from 2004-06, and Zach Johnson was a surprise winner in 2007.
Since then, Schwartzel followed Mickelson's 2010 triumph, and Scott's 2013 win came in between Watson's 2012 and 2014 Masters titles.
Following Watson's and Spieth's wins the last two years, a number of international stars not limited to McIlroy, Day, Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Rose, Louis Oosthuizen and Henrik Stenson could continue the trend in 2016.
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