If Tiger Woods prevails on Sunday at the Valspar Championship you can bet that by the time his final putt drops he will be the odds-on favorite to shrug into his fifth green jacket at the Masters.
Only 2 players now have better odds to win the Masters than Tiger Woods
After another stellar round at Innisbrook, where he briefly held the outright lead, Tiger is now oddsmakers’ third-favorite golfer to win the Masters.
With Woods’ Masters odds dropping twice during Friday’s second-round 3-under 68, there’s no doubt that Tiger-mania is as rampant in Las Vegas as it is at Innisbrook, where throngs of fans lined the fairways, cheering for their guy like it was 2000.
These may not be Tiger’s glory days, what with the world’s 388th-ranked player entering the weekend in Tampa just 12 official competitive rounds into his latest comeback in this 2018 season. But don’t tell that to the gamblers placing serious coin on Woods to win his 15th major title come April 8.
Indeed, the line on Woods moved twice on Friday — from 16-1 ahead of the Valspar to 12-1 after the Big Cat clawed his way to a 2-under 33 on his opening nine on the Copperhead course, and again to 10-1 (and alone as the third-favorite) when he finished his day with a share of the 36-hole lead. Indeed, world Nos. 1 and 2, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas (both at 8-1) are the only Masters contestants with better odds to emerge triumphant at Augusta.
Not bad for a guy coming back from multiple back surgeries who, even while on the DL, not knowing if he would ever play again, dealing with a DUI, and whose last tour win was in 2013, opened as a 100-1 long shot back in August. But then again, Friday marked the first time Woods — whose odds dropped to 66-1 in November, 33-1 in December, 20-1 after the a T9 finish at the Hero World Challenge, and 16-1 following a 12th-place outcome at the Honda Classic — had the outright lead in a tour tilt since 2015.
As Woods’ odds have improved, others’ have faltered. Jordan Spieth, who missed the cut at the Valspar after playing partner Woods smoked him 70-68 to 76-71 in their two rounds together, was a 7-1 favorite after the Hero; he’s now at 12-1. And Rory McIlroy, who also carded a MC to go with a missed cut, T20, and T59 in his other 2018 tour events, fell off from 12-1 to 14-1.
Some of this is Las Vegas needing to protect themselves. They may or may not thing Tiger has the third best chance to win but the money is flowing in on Tiger and they can’t be exposed. As Tiger-mania continues, more and more cash will come in from so-called mark bettors and they can’t run the risk of having so much cash on a guy with long-ish odds. So they’re dropping.
Oh, and by the way, though he heads into the weekend two shots back of frontrunner Corey Conners and in a five-way tie for second at 4-under at the Valspar, Tiger is now the favorite at Bovada to chalk up his 80th tour victory. In a tournament he had never entered and on a course he had not played since 1996.
Because Tiger.
Odds to win the Valspar Championship
- Tiger Woods 4/1
- Paul Casey 7/1
- Justin Rose 7/1
- Corey Conners 8/1
- Brandt Snedeker 10/1
- Webb Simpson 16/1
- Ryan Palmer 22/1
- Louis Oosthuizen 25/1
- Patrick Reed 25/1
- Kelly Kraft 28/1
- Keegan Bradley 33/1
- Sergio Garcia 33/1
- Jason Kokrak 33/1
- Sean O’Hair 33/1
- Jimmy Walker 33/1
- Adam Hadwin 40/1
- Sam Burns 45/1
- Branden Grace 50/1
- Luke List 50/1
- Zach Johnson 60/1
- Bill Haas 80/1
- Chris Kirk 80/1
- Shane Lowry 80/1
- Adam Scott 100/1
- Cameron Smith 100/1
- Steve Stricker 100/1
- Nick Watney 100/1
- Lucas Glover 125/1
- Rory Sabbatini 125/1
- Charl Schwartzel 125/1
- Blayne Barber 150/1
- Bob Estes 150/1
- Russell Knox 150/1
- William McGirt 150/1
- Ollie Schniederjans 150/1
- Dominic Bozzelli 200/1
- Austin Cook 200/1
- Si Woo Kim 200/1
- Whee Kim 200/1
- Stewart Cink 250/1
- Jim Furyk 250/1
- Aaron Wise 250/1
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