2017 Masters Picks

admin 7/23/2022

Photo Credit: Scott Halleran/Getty Images for Golfweek

2017 Masters Scoreboard
Masters Picks
2017 Masters Picks Odds
2017 Masters Picks Odds

Fantasy Golf Podcast: Our Masters 2017 picks, predictions, and best value bets. Masters history: Winner in 2015; Runner-up in 2014 and 2016.Current. Dustin Johnson - C'mon. You didn't think someone else could be first, did you? Ryan O’ Sullivan of Yahoo! Sports has made his pick and it is Jordan Spieth who he believes will win the Masters this week. The two-time major winner knows his way around the Augusta course as evidenced by his emphatic victory here in 2015. Spieth also has two other runner-up finishes in this tournament. Top Debutant – Thomas Pieters (+700); The popular pick is Jon Rahm, which I admit is a solid choice, but I’m all in on Pieters. He bombs it off the tee and has the ability to.

Masters Live features live all-day video coverage of the 2017 Masters, April 6-9, with four channels of golf action and in-progress highlights from Augusta National.

Brandon Tierney	Dave Shedloski	Matt Abbatacola	Kyle Porter
April 6-9, 2017	Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama	Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson	Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas	Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Paul Casey

Picks Analysis

The Masters

Brandon Tierney, CBS Sports Radio

While many story lines exist, one under-the-radar nugget permeating the pristine track is whether or not Dustin Johnson could become the first player since Tiger Woods in '05 to win the Masters while carrying the mantle as the world's # 1 ranked player. Watch Johnson on a weekly basis, and it's easy to deduce that his game and mind are fully in sync and that he's poised to shatter that streak. Johnson has always crushed the ball off the tee, but what's really created the space he currently enjoys from the rest of the field should strike fear into everyone as the '17 majors season commences. DJ's learned how to putt, and he fully trusts his wedge game, to the point where he is actively pursuing distances that allow him to play to a certain yardage. Couple that with his ability to obliterate par 5s and right now, Johnson is playing a different game. He remains the odds-on favorite to secure his first green jacket. Jordan Spieth brings an electric putter to the event, and his propensity to nail key birdie putts and sink clutch par putts will continue to serve him well at a venue he flourishes in. A pair of T2s and a win enable Spieth to step to the first tee box on Thursday with a true conviction of how to navigate this unique piece of property. It just seems to fit his mind's eye. I fully expect him to be in the hunt come Sunday's back nine. Hideki Matsuyama has the entire package skill-wise. He’s played well at Augusta previously and is currently red-hot. With two worldwide wins on his resume already in '17, he enters the field knowing he can score well in this event, with a pair of previous top 10s.

Dave Shedloski, CBS Local Sports Golf Digest

The weather forecast for Augusta is perpetually damp, which should help the Ulsterman Rory McIlroy complete his career grand slam. He has prospered in soft conditions in his previous four major victories. Dustin Johnson is the hottest player in golf and has been on a roll with three straight wins leading to claiming the world No. 1 ranking. It would seem reasonable that the reigning U.S. Open champion would bring the same high level to the year's first major. Phil Mickelson, the three-time Masters champion, is at that magic age: 46. He hasn't won for more than three years, since he captured the 2013 British Open at Muirfield. A fourth green jacket would be a grand way to break the drought and pass, by a few months, Jack Nicklaus as the oldest winner.

Matt Abbatacola, 670 The Score CBS Chicago

No one is playing better right now than Dustin Johnson. And the scary part is he still has room to improve. Will the greens at Augusta get to DJ? I'll still take him as my favorite. You could argue that Jordan Spieth’s collapse last year will take its toll this year. But I think just the opposite will happen. Spieth wants redemption, and he wants it badly. Justin Thomas is a long shot, but I like the way this kid plays. He has three wins in 2017, so why not add a major to the season? He may lack the experience that some critics mention, but that could be an advantage this year.

Kyle Porter, CBS Sports

Dustin Johnson is trying to become the first golfer not named Tiger Woods to win four PGA Tour events in a row since the 1950s. He has had a ton of success at this course recently and could not have put more distance between himself and the field over the last two months with wins at the Genesis Open, WGC-Mexico Championship and WGC-Dell Match Play. Rickie Fowler has top-12 finishes in two of the last three years and is coming in off a Honda Classic win, good finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and good start at the Houston Open. I still think his major will come at The Open Championship, but I can at least envision him winning this one. Let's talk about Paul Casey because nobody else does. The No. 16 golfer in the world has top 10s in each of the last two Masters and absolutely has the game to get it done. The only concerning thing to me is that he has one PGA Tour win in 2017 starts. But far less talented golfers than Casey have won this event.

The final spot in the 2017 Masters field was claimed by American Russell Henley on Sunday when he shot a final-round 65 that included 10 birdies to win the Houston Open for his first PGA Tour victory since the 2014 Honda Classic (and third event overall). Henley, who was born in the Peach State and went to the University of Georgia, otherwise wouldn't have been making travel plans to Augusta. It marks the third time in the last four years that the winner at the Golf Club of Houston was not otherwise exempt for the season's first major. Henley played the Masters from 2013-15 but didn't qualify last year.

I did consider picking Henley to win that tournament because he had a great track record in Houston. I wrote that 'Henley seems due here as he has three straight Top 7 finishes in Houston.' I hit on him for a Top 10 at +325 - he now has 13 consecutive rounds under par in the tournament -- but opted for ex-Houston Open champion J.B. Holmes at +3300 to win. He missed the cut. Sung Kang, seeking his first career win on Tour, shot a final-round 72 to finish second, three back. He had a six-shot lead after 36 holes, the largest in tournament history.

It's such a shame that Henley's win was overshadowed in the golf world by what happened on the LPGA Tour in its first major of the season. It's patently ridiculous that a professional sporting event can be determined by some clown sitting on his couch who calls in a rules violation. What LPGA officials did to Lexi Thompson on Sunday at the ANA Inspiration was absurd. She was running away with that tournament but learned of a four-stroke penalty on her 13^th hole Sunday even though the issue was in Saturday's round. Thompson lost in a playoff to So Yeon Ryu. Here's hoping the firestorm over what happened to the American forces the various Tours to scrap that stupid rule. To be fair, the officials applied the rules the way they should have been and as currently written.

So now we head to the greatest four days of the golfing year at the Masters. The British Open is the oldest major championship and the U.S. Open usually the toughest, but the Masters stands alone in my opinion. It obviously helps it is only held at one storied course as opposed to the other majors. I highly recommend going to Augusta for this tournament someday if you can.

It's a darn shame that Tiger Woods won't be playing yet again this week, and if Woods had to miss his favorite tournament then you know his career might be over. It's the third time in four years Tiger will be watching. Woods won the first of 14 major championships 20 years ago at Augusta National by a record 12 shots at age 21. That changed golf forever. The good news is that Jason Day will play. That was up in the air as the Aussie was waiting to see how his mother came out of surgery to deal with her cancer. It's a 94-player field. Nineteen players will make their Masters debuts, and there are six amateurs in the field ranging in age from 19 to 51.

The defending champion is England's Danny Willett, who was the beneficiary of Jordan Spieth's shocking back-nine meltdown on Sunday a year ago. Willett, the first Englishman to win a green jacket since Nick Faldo in 1996, shot a final-round 67 to win by three. Willett hasn't won since.

There will be literally hundreds of prop options for this tournament as the various sportsbooks treat it like golf's Super Bowl.

Golf Odds: The Masters Favorites

To no surprise, Dustin Johnson is the +550 Bovada favorite as he looks to win his fourth straight PGA Tour event. He originally was going to be in Houston last week, but after playing seven rounds and winning the Match Play smartly decided not to. Johnson didn't have a Top 10 in his first five trips to Augusta but is T6 and T4 the last two years.

Rory McIlroy, who blew this tournament on the back-nine in 2011, is +700 to become the sixth golfer to complete the career Grand Slam. He hasn't been outside the Top 10 the past three years.

Spieth (+800), Hideki Matsuyama, Rickie Fowler and Jason Day (all +1800) round out the favorites. It was physically painful watching Spieth blow his five-shot back-nine lead on Sunday last year and hit two ducks into Rae's Creek on No. 12. He was looking to be the first repeat winner since Tiger in 2002. Now we all find out what Spieth is made of mentally. Matsuyama has been Top 10 here the past two years. Day was second here in 2011 and third in 2013. I'm not sure where his head is because of his mom, but great story if he were to win, though. Fowler missed the cut last year but was fifth in 2014.

Golf Odds: The Masters Picks

2017 Masters Scoreboard

I can't do all the props justice, so I recommend going to Bovada as there are many interesting options, including whether some big names even make the cut. I might take a shot on 'no' at +375 for three-time champion Phil Mickelson only because he has missed two of the past three years.

Masters Picks

I do like Johnson (-180), Spieth (-150) and McIlroy (-150) at their prices for a Top 10. I'll take a shot on Lee Westwood at +600 too as he has been Top 11 six of the past seven years. Go with Matsuyama at +400 for 'top rest of the world,' Spieth at +110 as top former champion and +350 as top American, Fred Couples (+275) as top senior player, Jon Rahm (+200) as top debutant, and, why not, Westwood at +2200 as top European.

Hard to go against Spieth this week, but I'll bundle him on a prop at +170 along with Johnson and McIlroy vs. the field at -225. I doubt Johnson wins since only one golfer since the 1950s has won four straight PGA Tour events, that being Tiger.

2017 Masters Picks Odds

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