With the Masters starting in just three weeks, the oddsmakers favorite to win the green jacket is now Tiger Woods. These odds are for the 2018 Masters, to be clear.
Tiger Woods is now the favorite to win the 2018 Masters
The year is 2018 and Woods has officially moved into the odds favorite to win the green jacket.
The move into solo position with the lowest odds for Augusta came on Thursday morning. Woods had an 8:23 a.m. ET tee time at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and he’s spent much of the morning sharing the lead at Bay Hill. Woods went out with a 3-under 33 on the course’s back nine, his best opening nine score at this event since 2007.
The Masters odds also make it feel like 2007 all over again. Woods is now 8/1 and a slight favorite ahead of world No. 1 Dustin Johnson. Jeff Sherman of the Las Vegas SuperBook and golfodds.com released the updated numbers on Thursday morning. We were already in full freak out mode with the way Woods played in his last two starts, and now this is only going to amp it up with three more weeks to go.
Woods was 100/1 as recently as August, when it was still a question whether he’d ever play golf again. But since his first comeback start at the Hero World Challenge, the odds have slowly dropped. Now, he’s the favorite and the incomprehensible is a reality.
The odds, of course, don’t necessarily reflect the oddsmakers opinions on who they think has the best chance to win. It’s a reflection of all the money that’s pouring in on Woods. The books have to limit their liability with all that money, so they keep falling as Woods keeps making noise on Tour and the money keeps flying in backing him at the season’s first major.
To see him ahead of names like DJ, reigning player of the year and world no. 2 Justin Thomas, and Jordan Spieth is wild. There’s really nothing you can say about it that would be hyperbole.
The Arnold Palmer Invitational will almost certainly be Woods last start before the Masters. He’s not qualified for next week’s WGC event and he doesn’t play the week before the Masters. DJ could go off and win next week at the WGC, or in Houston, and overtake Woods as the favorite. But with Woods laying low and not playing, it seems like only more money will come in on him and he’s likely to stay as the favorite when Masters week begins.
To be clear again, that’s the 2018 Masters.
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