2025 Masters Tournament Preview: Everything You Need To Know About Augusta National

The first major of the 2025 season is finally here, as we head to Augusta for the 2025 Masters Tournament. Find Masters Open odds at DraftKings Sportsbook to increase your potential PGA Tour golf betting payouts. Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Jon Rahm project as the top favorites for this upcoming tournament.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — the Masters! After putting in the hours this year grinding research for non-signature events on the PGA Tour, like the Valero Texas Open and Cognizant Classic, we are finally rewarded with the first Major of the year. It’s the Super Bowl of golf, and the odds of the 2025 Masters have been shifting for months.

All the traditions and constants are what help make the Masters such a fan-favorite event. With so much the same, it’s our job to identify what’s different this time. This year, that job’s easy. LIV golf continues to fragment the game as we know it, making the Masters the first time since July that we can watch Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy compete versus Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau.

Given its history, tradition, and significance, most golfers worldwide want to win this tournament. And for golf obsessives like ourselves, it’s one of the few times we can take our casual sports friends under our wing each year and soak in this tournament together. I couldn’t be happier to dive into the research and preview for this year’s festivities. Without further ado, let’s get into everything we need to know about Augusta National ahead of the Masters!

2025 MASTERS ODDS: FAVORITES

Scroll to the bottom of the article to compare full outright Masters odds. Find players with odds shorter than 20-1 at Augusta National below. Click on the odds to place a bet.

THE FIELD AT A GLANCE

As of this writing, the field consists of 96 players. If we see a winner at the Valero Texas Open who is not already qualified, the final number would be 97 before any withdrawals.

As is tradition (unlike any other) at the Masters, any previous winner holds a lifetime spot in the field. Top amateur players in the world also gain entry. There is a long list of qualifying criteria, but, in summary, the field of entrants consists of:

• OWGR top-50 players
• Major winners over the last five years
• PGA Tour winners since last year’s Masters Tournament
• Special invite

Those criteria make the Masters the most exclusive Major to earn an invite to. Augusta National gave Joaquin Niemann and Nicolai Højgaard two unique invitations this year. Niemann has been the best player on LIV this season, with two wins over his last three starts. He earned the special invite after winning a rare full-field event on his schedule at the PIF Saudi International. He is currently 0/22 for breaking the top 15 in a Major. Perhaps this year will be different! Højgaard impressed in his Masters debut in 2024, finishing T16 and falling just one stroke shy of an automatic qualification this year.

LIV Players are Back

Players on the LIV golf tour continue to nosedive down OWGR rankings since they cannot earn new OWGR points. In 2024, 12 LIV golfers qualified by way of the top 50 OWGR ranking at the end of 2022, previously winning the Masters or another Major within the last five years. This year, the same group of 12 LIV players have returned.

LIV players make up about a quarter of the non-amateur or senior entrants. The numbers suggest there’s a good chance at least one LIV player is in the mix come Sunday. Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, and Tyrrell Hatton are all players to watch in great form leading in. Smith, DeChambeau, and Hatton finished in the top 10 at the 2024 Masters. It’s a good reminder that although we do not have Strokes Gained data to compare on a level scale, all of the best players in the world no longer play on the PGA Tour.

Breaking Down the Field

Between all the tours, here is a breakout of where the field of 96 is sourced from:

• PGA Tour: 72
• LIV: 12
• Amateurs: 5
• Senior past champions: 6
• DP World Tour: 1

If we remove the ceremonial group of 11 seniors and amateurs, we are essentially working with a field of 85 contenders. The descent of the DP World Tour over recent years has never been more evident, as Laurie Canter is the lone full-time DP World Tour member in the field this week.

Last year, the Masters was Scheffler’s to lose, and lose it, he did not. Scheffler entered as the prohibitive favorite at 4-1 pre-tournament outright odds, with Rory and Rahm distantly behind at 10-1 and 11-1, respectively. Scheffler was as hot as could be entering the Masters in 2024, with wins at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players and a runner-up finish at the Texas Children’s Houston Open in his three prior starts.

This year, however, a freak hand injury over the holidays has made Scheffler look human. He’s still searching for his first victory since the Hero World Challenge in December. As “human” as that may seem, Scheffler still shows his floor is high, finishing no worse than T25 in six starts this season.

McIlroy’s Moment?

With Scheffler’s third career Green Jacket feeling like far less of a foregone conclusion now, the spotlight fixes squarely on Rory as he attempts to complete the career Grand Slam in his 17th attempt at the Masters. Rory has been the best player on the PGA Tour through the first three months, ranking No. 1 in the FedEx Cup Standings with a pair of Signature Event wins at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship. He finished no worse than T17 over six starts this year and has looked polished in all facets of his game.

Rory’s ongoing quest for the Grand Slam and redemption at Augusta is the biggest storyline in golf, and the stars may be aligning for him as he’s firing on all cylinders leading into the 2025 Masters.

INTRODUCTION TO AUGUSTA NATIONAL

The one course each year that needs no introduction is Augusta National. But, we’ll dive on in for good measure.

The Masters has been played on these same grounds every year since its inception in 1934. Horton Smith won with a prize of $1,500 that year, and over the last 90 years, we’ve watched that purse grow 10,000-fold—$18M in prize money was distributed across the field in 2024, with Scheffler taking home the grand prize of $3.24M. The official 2025 purse will be announced later this week.

Augusta National is a massive property, stretching to 7,545 yards on the scorecard, the longest in its history. It’s been a wet and relatively soft set up at Augusta National over the last two years, with rainy conditions leading up to tournament week in 2023 and 2024. Conditions could not be better for 2025 though, as a steady forecast of low-70s and sunny weather persists from Thursday through Sunday.

Creativity Required

Augusta National features some of the most dramatic undulations and elevation changes in its fairways and around the greens complexes. It demands creativity from shot makers off uneven lies.

Amen Corner (No. 11, 12, and 13) prominently features on this week’s broadcast. Tournaments have been won or lost here on these three iconic holes. This stretch includes a 500-yard Par-4, a treacherous 155-yard Par-3, and a risk/reward 545-yard Par-5, where a good tee shot can set up eagle opportunities. Rae’s Creek has claimed countless victims over the years on this three-hole stretch, and it never disappoints come Sunday.

The simple summation would be elite, in-form players who can work the ball in both directions on drives and approach shots and possess crafty touch around the greens. The grounds favor lefties with a right-to-left ball flight, anchored by wins from Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson, and Mike Weir, as well as a top-10 finish from Robert MacIntyre in his 2021 debut. Modifications to the tee box on the 13 emphasize right-to-left tee shots more than ever.

The beauty of Augusta National is that many holes are set up for a left-to-right approach after a right-to-left tee shot. You must be comfortable abandoning your stock shot shape here to create the most scoring opportunities.

How It Breaks Down

Augusta National is a Par-72, elongated to 7,555 yards this go around. It features four reachable risk/reward Par-5s, the only holes on the property with a scoring average under par. Players who take advantage of birdie-or-better opportunities on these four holes usually go on to find the most success. There’s an advantage for longer hitters who can hold these green in two.

As we’ve come to expect from Major championship venues, the par-4s are much longer than what we typically see on tour. That partly helps make Augusta one of the most challenging golf venues. Nine of the 10 par-4s play over 440 yards, and three of the par-4s play over 490 yards.

Augusta features some of the widest fairways we see all year. Although players hit them much higher than the tour average rate (~70%), hitting the correct side of the fairway is essential to set up your next shot. Augusta is still far from a second-shot course, as specific pin locations are only accessible from one side of the fairway.

We also see top-five difficulty among PGA Tour courses regarding par 4, par 3, putting, and around the green. Players who excel in long par-4 scoring and short games have distinguished themselves.

Augusta’s Greens

Bentgrass makes up the greens at Augusta National, playing extremely firm and fast. Tour pros and caddies cite them as the most complex and nuanced greens to read. That emphasizes course experience; course history is more predictive of future success for Masters odds than any other course on tour.

Given how complex these greens are to read, there is an argument that it plays to the advantage of weaker putters just as much as the elite putters in the field. Players like Scottie Scheffler, Hideki Matsuyama, and Sergio Garcia picked up victories in recent years despite being notoriously poor putters at that time. Corey Conners and Cameron Champ also regularly played well at the Masters despite being two of the statistically worst putters on tour.

New Course Adjustments

While the grounds at Augusta National are one of the few constants in golf year to year, it is notable that three holes – 11, 13, and 15 – incurred modifications over the last few years.

The change to No. 13 was the most notable in 2023. The 510-yard par-5, which has traditionally been reachable with less-than-driver, now stretches to 545 yards and is no gimme to reach in two if players play more conservatively off the tee. It’s a far more claustrophobic tee shot now and will primarily reward players who comfortably hit a right-to-left tee shot with their driver (see below).

In 2022, modifications were also made to holes No. 11 and No. 15.

The tee box on the Par-4 11th was pushed back and to the left by 15 yards. They re-contoured the fairway and removed several trees on the right. The tee box on the par-5 15th was also pushed back by 20 yards with additional re-contouring of the fairways, adding an extra club for players to challenge the green in two. These are not significant changes, but they add a challenge to some of the few “gettable” holes at Augusta National.

The second hole at Augusta National was lengthened by 10 yards last year. This is a marginal change that should not dramatically alter scoring. However, it was made to add a bit more bite to the easiest-scoring hole.

For even more detail on Augusta National course specs, hole-by-hole breakdown with yardages, Player Profile write-ups, Masters champion odds trends with their pre-tournament odds and more, visit our Masters odds page.

Editor’s Note

EVENT HISTORY AND COURSE COMPS

None of the PGA Tour schedule tournaments has a more predictive course history than the Masters. Whether that be a credit to the pressure-packed atmosphere, its consistent fixture on the schedule, or the intricacies and nuances of the greens, it proves to be a course that players either thrive at with great consistency or a code they never crack. This helps narrow down the list of potential contenders.

Over the last five years, 14 players finished in the top 10 multiple times: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Corey Conners, Sungjae Im, Will Zalatoris, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele, Cameron Young, Patrick Reed, Cam Smith, Brooks Koepka, and Jon Rahm. Given what we know about the sticky course history, it would be a safe bet to consider any of these players to contend once again in 2025.

Conversely, notables who failed to crack the top 15 at the Masters over the last five years include Joaquin Niemann, Tom Kim, Keegan Bradley, Billy Horschel, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Sepp Straka, and JT Poston.

Assessing The Debutants

I always like to dabble in the Top Debutant prop market in Masters week. You’ll hear the timeless adage that a debutant has not won the Masters since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979, but that doesn’t mean first-timers are immune from playing into contention. Since 2014, Jordan Spieth, Jonas Blixt, Sungjae Im, Will Zalatoris, and Ludvig Åberg have all finished runner-up in their Masters debuts. Åberg posted one of the most impressive Masters debut performances in the event’s history, clearing the rest of the field not named Scheffler by three strokes.

This year’s debutant class is less vaunted, but Davis Thompson, Maverick McNealy, Taylor Pendrith, Aaron Rai, and Thomas Detry are the top names for this week. In contrast to 2024’s debutant class, which featured a Major champion (Wyndham Clark) and top-seven pre-tournament odds favorite (Ludvig Åberg), you can find every 2025 debutant at 100-1 outright odds or longer.

Others Excelling At The Masters

The top 10 in total strokes gained Course History at Augusta National over the last 10 years include Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose, Will Zalatoris, Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Smith, and Xander Schauffele.

Meanwhile, 15 players avoided missing the cut in four consecutive trips to the Masters: Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama, Shane Lowry, Russell Henley, Patrick Reed, Cam Smith, Matt Fitzpatrick, Joaquin Niemann, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, and Collin Morikawa. Of that group, only Scheffler, Zalatoris, and Morikawa finished inside the top 30 each of the last four years.

Course Comps

It’s sacrilegious to compare any golf course to Augusta National, but we’ve got to try or risk going back to 2019 for a 24-round sample size of Course History. Simply looking for courses with similar characteristics to Augusta National, I consider Muirfield Village, Memorial Park, Plantation Course at Kapalua, Bay Hill, Riviera CC, Accordia Golf Narashino, Torrey Pines, Quail Hollow, Pinehurst No. 2, Southern Hills, and Los Angeles Country Club as top comps.

I wouldn’t single out any of these courses as a one-to-one comp, with the atmosphere at Augusta National standing on its own. Muirfield Village, Torrey Pines, Bay Hill, and Quail Hollow each share similar lengths and difficulty in scoring conditions. That tends to reward the top all-around players, though each features far more prevalent and penal rough than Augusta.

Riviera CC is another difficult test featuring a strong field that asks players to shape the ball in both directions off the tee and on approach. We’ve seen crossover winners at both events: Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott, and Mike Weir. Seven of the last 10 Genesis Invitational winners have crossed over as Masters Champions; Joaquin Niemann, Max Homa, and JB Holmes are the only exceptions.

Although the Plantation Course at Kapalua has become more birdie-heavy in calm conditions, it does feature a massive property of wide and severely undulated fairways, bearing plenty of similarities to Augusta when not flooded.

The top 10 players in terms of SG: TOT across these comp courses are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Smith, Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Ludvig Åberg, Tommy Fleetwood, and Hideki Matsuyama.

KEY STATS TO CONSIDER WITH MASTERS ODDS

• SG: T2G
• Driving Distance
• SG: ARG
• SG: APP
• Par 4: 450+ / Prox 200+
• Par 5 Scoring
• 3-Putt Avoidance / SG: Short Game (Firm & Fast Conditions)
• SG: TOT (Majors L5 Years) / SG: TOT (Difficult Comp Courses)
• Course History

We don’t have the luxury of strokes gained data quickly available to model top correlated stat categories. However, there is a clear profile of players who found repeatable success at Augusta National. Some modeled stats may need to be taken with a grain of salt, considering the 12 LIV players have been playing off the grid for nearly a year.

Experience With Greens

Starting with the basic stats, SG: ARG, Driving Distance, Par 5 Scoring, Par-4: 450+, and Course History are the five main pillars I’m looking for. Past winners consistently check off at least four of these five boxes. With these greens being the most intricate and challenging to read in golf, veterans who have seen these breaks before without a greens book have a distinct advantage.

These greens’ firm and fast qualities also make SG: Around The Green and 3-Putt Avoidance crucial, as players will need deft touch to save par on a course that yields only 60% greens in regulation. Four players rank in the top 30 in SG: ARG, 3-Putt Avoidance, and SG: Short Game (Firm & Fast Greens): Cameron Smith, Russell Henley, Stephan Jaeger, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

Driving, Par-5 Scoring

Distance is unnecessary, but it provides a distinct advantage to hold these greens on approach shots if players can loft a shorter club into them. The top 10 players in Driving Distance in this field are Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Åberg, Wyndham Clark, Rory McIlroy, Min Woo Lee, Taylor Pendrith, Byeong Hun An, Cameron Young, Rasmus Højgaard, and Sam Burns. However, I’m more likely to weed out the bottom half of this field in Driving Distance when refining down a player pool.

The four Par 5s are the only holes at Augusta with a scoring average under par, so distance will go hand-in-hand here for players who can generate Eagle opportunities. The top 10 players in Par-5 Scoring entering this week are Patrick Cantlay, Taylor Pendrith, Rory McIlroy, Sepp Straka, Justin Thomas, Hideki Matsuyama, Joe Highsmith, Billy Horschel, Robert MacIntyre, and Scottie Scheffler.

Long par-4s are a staple of Major championship venues. All 10 par-4s measure over 440 yards at Augusta National, so identifying the players who played long par-4s well across standard events can be a great way to identify contenders. The top 10 players on 450+ Par-4s over the last 36 rounds are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Min Woo Lee, Taylor Pendrith, Akshay Bhatia, Keegan Bradley, Robert MacIntyre, and Nicolai Højgaard.

Couple these key stats with Course History, and we’re left with just six players in this week’s field to rank above average in each: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Robert MacIntyre, and Nicolai Højgaard.

Scoring In Difficult Conditions

What makes a Major course unique from the typical week-to-week venues (legacy-defining stakes and of the world’s best in the field aside)? Major venues are designed to test a player’s all-around skillset from tee to green, expose the players’ flaws, and ultimately reward the best all-around golfer that week.

Uncertainty surrounds the recent form of the 12 LIV players, so it’s a good starting point to reference performance in Majors over the last five years to establish common ground across the entire field. The top 10 in SG: TOT in Majors over that span are Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Will Zalatoris, Shane Lowry, Viktor Hovland, and Hideki Matsuyama.

Most importantly, seven players ranked in the top 30 in Recent Form (SG: T2G L36), Course History, Major History, and Comp Difficult Course History: Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood, Russell Henley, and Ludvig Åberg.

There are infinite ways to splice the data this week and hone in on top candidates to play at the Masters. The perfect formula consists of a player above-average in Masters & Major History, Driving Distance, Par-5 Scoring, and Prox 200+, Recent Form (SG: T2G) & SG: ARG.

Only four players satisfy that criteria: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, and Justin Thomas.

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: Jon Rahm

The face of everyone’s favorite franchise in professional sports, Legion XIII, returns down Magnolia Lane. Despite already having a seat at the Champion’s dinner table, Jon Rahm has much to prove.

If the first few years of LIV golfers and Majors taught us anything, they live for these four weeks. They all wish to have their cake and eat it, too, taking Saudi checks while competing against the best in the world. It’s a bit of a joke to parade around Singapore and Riyadh to “grow the game” when thousands–if not hundreds–are watching on TV.

So it all comes down to this stage to prove you’re still one of the best in the world.

Rahm is nothing if not a man of pride, and he’ll be motivated to prove he is not one of the best players in the world but the best player. Of all the LIV players, Rahm is the only one to check the box of elite course history (five top-10s at the Masters over his last seven trips) and elite current form (top-six finishes in his first four LIV events this season).

As 2023 showed, Rahm has the mental fortitude, distance, and touch around the greens needed to slay Augusta National. There are no signs that he’s fallen from the elite level of play on the PGA Tour.

I don’t see any reason for his odds to have nearly doubled since last year. I prefer his chances to win a third Major this week over the likes of Åberg, DeChambeau, and Morikawa, who can each be found at shorter odds in chase of their first career Masters victory. The best discount currently available in the Masters Odds market, Rahm, is squarely on my betting card this week.

2025 MASTERS ODDS: DFS PLAYER POOL

With all the course-fit profiles in mind, I’m leaning early toward the below player pool. Naturally, I’m looking their way in the 2025 Masters odds, as well. I’ve broken the list by actualized pricing/odds tier for DraftKings and rankings projections for Underdog Fantasy, with odds and pricing released earlier this week.

THE MASTERS MODEL RESULTS & BREAKDOWN

In my model this week, I’ve emphasized SG: T2G, SG: ARG, Par-5 Scoring, and SG: TOT (Majors L5 Years), followed by a more balanced mix of SG: APP, Prox 200+, Driving Distance, Course History, SG: TOT (Comp, Difficult Conditions), SG: Short Game (Firm & Fast Greens), and 3-Putt Avoidance (Fast Greens).

Model Favorites

If my model is correct, this will finally be the year Rory breaks through to claim his first career Green Jacket. Everything is trending in the right place for Rory, as he’s already taken down two Signature Events this season and looks to be in complete control of his game. He’s done everything but win at Augusta, as he ranks No. 2 in Course History with four top-five finishes over the last 10 years.

After Rory, the rest of the top 10 is rounded out by Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Hideki Matsuyama, Tommy Fleetwood, Russell Henley, Xander Schauffele, Min Woo Lee, Shane Lowry, and Ludvig Åberg.

As it stands, I have avoided placing any distance futures and have made just one bet for the 2025 Masters: Rahm 20-1, which, as of Saturday, April 5th, is still the best number available for the 2023 Masters champ. I will continue to round out my betting card and post as my bets are placed in TheLines’ free Discord channel.

We’ve got a long weekend of Masters odds content ahead. Still to come this week:

• Masters DFS Picks
• Masters Pools Strategy
• TheLines Masters Megapod
• My full Masters betting card

Thank you for reading this far. Best of luck navigating 2025 Masters odds!

2025 MASTERS ODDS At DraftKings Sportsbook

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