Tiger Woods mania is real and it’s spectacular — and it’s not just the talking heads on Golf Channel who are beside themselves with glee as the man of the hour takes his place atop the Hero World Challenge scoreboard.
Odds for Tiger Woods winning the Masters have already risen dramatically
Tiger-mania is out of control and the rapidly improving odds to win the men’s first major of the season are evidence.
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On the strength of his opening-round 69 on Thursday and continued stellar play on Friday at the Hero World Challenge, the injury-plagued 41-year-old is rocketing up oddsmakers’ 2018 Masters boards.
Ahead of Thursday’s start of his first competition in 301 days, Woods was a 66-1 (sidenote: That is an INSANE number for a guy who hasn’t played in 300 days and hardly at all in the last four years) to earn his fifth green jacket. But his opening-round 3-under that put him three shots off the lead was enough to get oddsmakers’ juices flowing as several sports books early Friday listed Tiger at 33-1 for Augusta.
With Woods getting off to a blistering start in Round 2 — he made the turn in the lead at 8-under after an eagle-3 on the par-5 ninth hole — the odds of the 14-time major champion winning his 15th in April at Augusta had improved to 20-1 at Irish bookmaker Paddy Power.
To put those numbers in perspective, Woods is tied with Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose, while Tiger’s fellow 40-something Phil Mickelson is at 35-1 to capture his fourth Masters title, two-time Masters victor Jordan Spieth is listed at 6-1, and Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson are at 8-1.
Prior to Thursday’s round, Woods had not played a shot in competition since early February, when he struggled to an opening 77 at the Dubai Desert Classic and withdrew before Day 2 with back spasms. He notched his most recent W anywhere at the 2013 Bridgestone Invitational and won his last Grand Slam event at the 2008 U.S. Open.
But he is absolutely on fire in the Bahamas, and touts are obviously paying as much attention to Woods’ play as is the rest of the free world, which means Tiger is also at 33-1 to earn his third U.S. Open and 28-1 to win the British Open and the PGA Championship.
As always when Woods is involved, stay tuned, because another stellar round from the 14-time major champion former world No. 1 will continue to boost his odds of winning at Augusta. Even if Tiger is not back, Tiger-mania definitely is.
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