Rory McIlroy is your favorite at Augusta National

Tiger Woods’ odds to add a sixth green jacket are low, but not as low as Rory’s odds to complete the career slam.

The oddsmaker’s favorite to win the 2019 Masters is arguably the player with the most on the line. Rory McIlroy did not play in the final week before the Masters, but his odds dropped another tick to 7/1 and he will almost certainly be your favorite when the first tee shot is struck Thursday morning.

At the top of the week, McIlroy is the only player in single digits, with world No. 1 Dustin Johnson slotting behind him at 10/1. I spoke with Jeff Sherman, who sets the odds at the Las Vegas SuperBook and runs the popular GolfOdds site, and he said he was very comfortable with his position on both Rory and DJ last week. But still, we have some slight movement with Rory, who is once again playing for history. A win would complete the career slam, putting him in the select company of Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods as the only players in men’s golf history to win all four.

McIlroy is playing what is arguably the best golf of his career, ripping off a string of top five finishes to start the year before bagging his first victory of 2019 at The Players, which boasts the deepest field of the season. The run resulted in Rory jumping contemporaries such as Justin Thomas, Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, and DJ since the opening odds last August.

Despite an underwhelming, and often ugly, start to 2019, Spieth has dropped from the favorite to just 16/1 to win his second green jacket. Much of that is respect for Spieth’s work at Augusta National, which advanced analytics gurus will tell you is the most predictable of the major championships. So we have a true clash of Spieth’s great course history here up against his current form. Given the history and the public favoritism, he’s only at 16/1 and, while he could absolutely win, that is notttt great value.

Tiger settles in at 14/1, which could be considered high for such a wildly popular player that always gets a ton of backing. It would be astronomical at Tiger’s peak, when he was often a 3/1 or even lower favorite to win major championships. But Sherman added that this is a different, deeper era and that’s why you can expect scant players falling into single digits, like this week with just Rory in that territory. We’re in the post-Tiger era and there are too many world-class talents to have favorites rated extremely low. At The Players, no one started the week in single digits.

We could see some more movement this week but as Sherman noted, it will be slight. He said about 40 percent of the total money on overall winner bets comes in the week of the Masters. But unless there’s some injury or some crazy sums, the odds stay solid without any significant shifts during the three practice days.

Via GolfOdds and the SuperBook, here are your odds at the start of Masters week, sorted next to each player’s opening odds last August upon the conclusion of last year’s final major championship:

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