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The Masters Overview
If you’re a golf fan, then you’ll be feeling similar to a child leading into Christmas right about now.
Yes, it’s Masters week, the first major of the season and (whisper it quietly, particularly in the UK) undoubtedly the best.
The azaleas will be in full bloom, the pines emanating that distinctive smell and the greens slippery and treacherous.
It is the perfect setting for the world’s best golfers to congregate and provide four days of absorbing action before the winner adorns the Green Jacket on Sunday evening.
The one Monday that the golf world anticipates for 51 weeks a year. Masters week starts today. #themasters pic.twitter.com/AD7rIucgtU
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 7, 2025
As has become the norm in the past couple of years, Scottie Scheffler comes in as favourite with the world number one chasing a third Masters success in four years.
The American has struggled to hit the heights of last season in recent months but he showed flashes of his brilliant best in finishing second at the Houston Open, carding rounds of 62 and 63, and one former Augusta winner Nick Faldo believes that’s an ominous sign for the rest of the field.
He told the PA News agency: “Great players get excited. You are playing regular golf but your number one thought, I can promise you, is Augusta. He probably had that since [last] July. You start thinking and preparing and gearing everything up.
“He will put his work in and double the rounds he is playing. The round he played at the Olympics in Paris [a closing 62] was amazing.
“He has got a great ability to turn it on and make it happen. He will be in it even if he is eight shots out of it for a while. I bet he will find a way to get to the top of the leaderboard.
“The better names generally will come to the top at Augusta through the week. There may be a few names we don’t recognise at the start but by the end of the week those [big] guys will be there.”
The Masters 2025 Betting Promos and Outright Odds
Rory McIlroy is Scheffler’s biggest danger, the Ulsterman having won twice this season already, including The Players Championship at Sawgrass.
The 35-year-old continues to require the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam, as he has since claiming the 2014 British Open.
It’s often said Augusta is not a course McIlroy naturally thrives on – it requires a dead-eye short game, which is not his strong suit – but seven top-10 finishes in Georgia, including a runners-up placing in 2022, would suggest he has the game, if he can cope with the expectation.
Tiger Woods’ former coach Butch Harmon certainly believes it could be McIlroy’s year.
The Sky Sports Golf commentator told The Sun: “Everything is lined up. The stars are all lined up, the moon, everything that people talk about in the universe is lined up for Rory to win the Masters. Now he has to go do it.
“He’s put so much personal pressure on himself to win because he wants it so bad because he’s won the other three.
“I would say in the past, the pressure would have been from the outside. Now it’s all on himself.
“Rory is going to have to relax.
“If he can relax and just play golf, I think this could be the one to get him over the hump.”
A busman’s holiday for the world’s best at Augusta National. #themasters pic.twitter.com/clzGO63l7F
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 7, 2025
There will, of course, be plenty of competition from the LIV Golf Tour.
Jon Rahm won the Masters in 2023 and is in excellent form, having finished inside the top 10 in all five LIV events he has played this year.
Bryson De Chambeau showed in pipping McIlroy to the US Open title last year that he still has the drive to succeed while Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel and Bubba Watson are all former winners in Georgia.
How the bookies see The Masters
These odds are accurate at time of publication.
- Scottie Scheffler +450
- Rory McIlroy +650
- Collin Morikawa +1400
- Jon Rahm +1400
- Ludvig Åberg +1600
- Bryson DeChambeau +1600
- Xander Schauffele +2000
- Justin Thomas +2500
- Hideki Matsuyama +2800
- Tommy Fleetwood +3300
How to watch The Masters
You can watch the Masters Tournament live on ESPN and CBS if you are in the United States. You can also stream it for free on Masters.com.
In Latin America, ESPN Deportes will be the primary broadcaster.
Prediction for The Masters
As much as we’d love to tip Scheffler and McIlroy, we’d rather place our money on two members of LIV.
Rahm is hitting the ball beautifully and while doubts remain over his hunger week in, week out on a tour he clearly does not enjoy, his appetite will be well and truly back when he drives down Magnolia Lane.
We think the Spaniard will go close, as will Cameron Smith.
The Australian won the British Open in 2022 and has five top-10 finishes in eight visits to Augusta. He possesses the short game to succeed.
