Masters odds 2017: Jordan Spieth is the early favorite at Augusta National

The countdowns are reaching their final stage, the treacly theme song is infiltrating our March Madness broadcasts, and Jim Nantz is ready to bloom.

The Masters is a little more than two weeks away, and while we still have a couple of more events to settle, everyone’s mind is already on Augusta National. The first major of the season looms over the entire schedule. It’s the biggest event in the game. It comes after the longest layoff between majors: an interminable eight months that even grinds on the players as the circus and hype get turned all the way up in the first quarter of the year.

We’ve entered a new era in golf and at the Masters. We’re always way too quick to proclaim “eras” and anoint the next great superstar. But it’s hard to dispute that, whatever you want to call it, this is now a post-Tiger era. It may not be the Rory era or the Jordan era or the DJ era, as Sports Illustrated covers might announce. But it is the post-Tiger era, and the odds for Augusta continue to illuminate that.

In his prime, Tiger would walk onto the first tee at Augusta with absurdly low odds to win the Masters. Sometimes it got down to 3/1. No matter his form or his record coming into the event, he was always the favorite. This was the case at every major and every tournament he played.

This is, of course, insane. No matter how dominant you are, golf is still a fickle game that requires incredible fortune to beat 100 or 150 of your colleagues, the best in the world. The value of backing someone with such low odds is ... low. Tiger was so good he challenged this and made you think twice.

The lowest odds with two weeks to go in 2017 belong to Jordan Spieth, which makes sense. Regardless of form, Augusta National would appear to be one of those horse-for-course situations for Spieth. He’s got it mapped out, and even if it doesn’t set up well for how he’s hitting it at the time, he knows how to work his way around and post a low score.

In three starts at Augusta National, he’s played in the final group on Sunday three times. There was that record-matching win in 2015 and then ... well, we won’t talk about what happened to his five-shot lead on the back nine last year. It’s an incredible three-year start to what could be decades of contention at Augusta.

So while Spieth has dropped a little in the world rankings (all the way down to No. 6), he’s still the favorite with two weeks to go. He’s got a runaway win already this year and hasn’t shown any signs of poor form.

But that favorite status could change in these final two weeks. It’s gotten that bunched and competitive at the top of the game right now. Any one of Rory, DJ, or Jason Day could become co-favorites or edge Spieth by the time the first balls are in the air at Augusta. This is the post-Tiger era.

With two weeks to go, here are your 2017 Masters odds (via GolfOdds.com and Jeff Sherman of the Las Vegas SuperBook):