2025 Masters picks to win: See who SB Nation has winning the Green Jacket

The greatest tournament in the world is now upon us.

Ninety-five of the best players in the world have descended upon Augusta National for the 89th playing of The Masters Tournament, the first major of the 2025 season. It’s also a reunion of sorts, as 12 players from LIV Golf will tee it up alongside the top PGA Tour stars this week.

Two-time champion Bernhard Langer will say goodbye to playing competitively, and Fred Couples, who won in 1992, might be doing the same. Five-time Masters winner Tiger Woods is not playing this week after suffering an Achilles injury in early March. However, his biggest adversary throughout the 2000s, Phil Mickelson, is eyeing another charge up the leaderboard. Mickelson tied for second in 2023 but finished T-43 last year.

Of course, this year’s field is headlined by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, the two best players in the world. Scheffler arrives as the defending champion, but perhaps no player in the history of this tournament has arrived at Augusta with more pressure on their shoulders than McIlroy. Having won twice already in 2025, at Pebble Beach and TPC Sawgrass, McIlroy is playing better than he ever has leading into The Masters. A win this week would give him the career Grand Slam, something he has been chasing for 11 years.

Other intriguing storylines include the likes of Xander Schauffele, who eyes a third major title in his last four tries. Can Ludvig Åberg claim his first major victory after finishing in solo second a year ago? What about the 2023 winner, Jon Rahm? Or 2024 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau? Maybe Tommy Fleetwood can win for the first time on U.S. soil. Golf fans should not sleep on Maverick McNealy either. Although ranked 10th in the world, McNealy is making his Masters debut this week after winning the RSM Classic last November.

At any rate, the 2025 Masters promises to be another fantastic tournament. The possibilities are endless, which is what makes this tournament so fun year-in and year-out.

Let’s get to our picks.

For the first time in 23 years, I am calling for a repeat winner at The Masters. Scottie Scheffler will win his third Green Jacket in four years, joining Jack Nicklaus as the only other player in history to do so.

Here’s what I love about Scheffler: despite being the best player in the world — and the defending champion — plenty of other players arrive at Augusta with more pressure than he does. Rory McIlroy most certainly does. You could argue that Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau do as well. Collin Morikawa also has plenty of weight on his shoulders.

This is all to say that the World No. 1 is flying somewhat under the radar this week.

And by the way, his putter is catching some fire too. Two weeks ago at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, Scheffler gained more than seven strokes on the greens, good for sixth among the field. He was also sixth in strokes gained from tee-to-green, which is proof that Scheffler is heating up at the right time.

Although he has not won yet in 2025, Scheffler gets the job done this week at a place where he has had incredible success. He knows how to win on this golf course — just watch how he orchestrated his final round a year ago.

When the week began I went into it wanting to pick Rory McIlroy for obvious reasons, but I was terrified to do so. Those reasons are obvious as well.

As I have gotten older in life and experienced different things I have recognized that big things feel different types of big depending on what stage of life I am in. When I was younger I used to be obsessed with the word “epic” and tried to do and live everything in an epic way.

But what was epic then is not epic anymore. What was normal then is beyond epic now. Life changes. Things happen. We grow. We adapt. We evolve. Things like what epic is or isn’t moves and adjusts with us.

The idea of Rory winning The Masters has always felt epic, and that idea still does in many ways. But what I have learned the most at this point in life is that I can experience that epic-ness in the journey, too. Picking Rory is always epic. It has resulted in only losses when it has come to Augusta, but that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been epic.

Rory spoke this week and basically summed up my thoughts on life, golf, him and the word epic all at once. I have told myself many times that I will never pick him to win The Masters again because it feels so foolish on its face (those reasons are obvious, too).

But I want to pick Rory. That is what is epic for me now. And if I have learned anything as I mentioned it is that I am the author of what I feel is epic.

Rory McIlroy is going to win The Masters on Sunday. I said it. I believe it. I want it.

It is happening.

He may not ultimately win the Masters, but the most talented person on the grounds at Augusta National this week? That is an easy prediction.

That is Jack Milko.

If you have not already read his piece from Monday at Augusta, it is a must, and a preview of the kind of coverage you are going to see from him all week long from the Masters. There are moments as a writer where you sit back and ponder whether you could have written something so well-done, and when I read this from Jack, this was one such moment for me.

As for who wins the tournament? I’m going to stick with my penchant of picking longer shots, and for that reason I’ll go with Russell Henley. Augusta is largely about fairways, greens, and putting, and that is the part of his game that stands out. Henley has four top ten finishes in seven events this year, including a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. His approach game has been phenomenal this year, as he ranks third in greens in regulation, and sixth in average distance from the whole.

I know this is the part where I’m supposed to write something insightful and wise, maybe include an esoteric factoid that reveals “and THIS is why Player X will win this year!” But I have no such data point, no statistic that reveals the future. All I have is a question: What kind of person do you want to be?

Me? I want to be the kind of person who knows that good things do happen to good people. I want to be the kind of person who believes in a righteous order that eventually comes to the world. I want to be the kind of person who, in the words of the prophet Commander Peter Quincy, famously said, “Never give up, never surrender.”

I have picked and bet Rory McIlroy to win The Masters every year for nearly a decade. I will continue picking him until he dies or he wins (or I guess I die). Because eventually he will win, and when that day comes, I want to cash the ticket.

While I wish I could go in another direction, Rory McIlroy getting his career Grand Slam is something that needs to happen finally and would be a great story arc for golf in general. Whether McIlroy can finish out on Sunday with all of that riding on the line is difficult to say, but he seems ready to put on the green jacket in Augusta.

Well, I guess I can’t pick Tiger Woods this year? I think that alone suggests the kind of weight to give my Masters pick. The last time I watched golf might have been last year’s Masters. Actually, no. It was probably the PGA Championship, shortly after Scottie Scheffler was arrested. So, it’s pretty clear what kind of golf-watcher I am. This is very much the “I didn’t watch a second of college basketball” bracket prediction type of pick.

Scottie Scheffler would be the easy pick and Rory McIlroy would not be too far behind for playing this game on the easiest level. I’m going to go with Collin Morikawa. He tied for third last year and finished tenth and fifth the previous two years. He’s got three top-ten finishes and two runner-ups this season. Let’s go with the former Cal Bear!