Welcome to our PGA Tour betting tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert forecaster Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network dedicated to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow him on X at @LasVegasGolferand you can read his early picks below for the Masters, which begins April 9 in Augusta, Ga.
Let the madness begin! The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and the Masters is truly a match made in heaven, isn’t it? For roughly the next 25 days, two of the biggest events in all of sports will dominate headlines, viewership, content…the entire media landscape! And what a wonderful thing that is.
I started betting on the future of College Basketball in December. The first bet I made this year “to win the Masters” was in early February. For several years in my golf handicapping process, I have used the Hawaii and American Express events in La Quinta, California, as a sort of “pre-season,” getting a feel for the players, their form, new faces, and evaluating everything about the new golf year. with Kapalua Plantation Course being such a strong pointer to success at Augusta National, I often placed my first Masters bets during or after that tournament, Sentry, but of course, that event was canceled this year due to drought conditions in northwest Maui.
There are several other strong indicators in the West Coast Swing that can predict Masters success. In addition to Kapalua, the connection between the winners in the Riviera Country Club (Genesis Invitational) and Masters is widely known and is an extensive list. This year’s Genesis winner, Jacob Bridgeman, is 60 to 70-1 to slip into a green jacket on the second Sunday in April. I didn’t play Bridgeman after that win, nor did I root for Rory McIlroy to defend his Masters title after finishing runner-up in Los Angeles. I did, however, place some early bets on a couple of guys who finished in the top 15 at Riviera. We’ll get to it soon.
Aside from specific golf courses that can give us some clues, strong performances, top 10 finishes and tournament wins are a common theme we see in the early season resumes of most Masters winners. Unsurprisingly, current form is a bit of a qualifier. It’s not often that a struggling player suddenly finds his game and wins a major championship.
Although my first game took place a few weeks ago during the WM Phoenix Open in TPC Scottsdale. Two-time Phoenix winner, former Masters champion and recent winner at Riviera and Kapalua, Hideki Matsuyama was my first “to win the 2026 Masters” bet at 39-1, which I found here in Las Vegas at Circa Sports. After watching the 2021 Masters champion get off to a great start in Phoenix, I pulled the trigger. I did the same thing last year after he won at Kapalua, but unfortunately, he settled down and finished 21st at the 2025 Masters four months later. Since finishing runner-up in Phoenix, Matsuyama has cooled off again, but his game remains very strong. Attempts have been made outside, but the wide fairways at Augusta National can often minimize those issues. I still wouldn’t mind a game with Matsuyama at 30-1 or better.
I placed my second bet that same week on another former Kapalua and Masters champion. A player who at the time was hot, and this is Patrick Reed. I managed to get just ahead of the game, catching Reed at 46-1. Reed left the LIV circuit and has played quite a bit on the DP World Tour. He won twice and finished runner-up once in a three-week span between late January and early February. I’m seeing his price now ranging from roughly 25 to 35-1. I believe 35 is still a solid number. Reed just recorded another top 10 finish earlier this month at the Joburg Open in South Africa. In seven Masters appearances since winning in 2018, Reed has not missed a cut and has finished in the top 10 four times.
I added two more games in February with both Australian players. Min Woo Lee (80-1) and Adam Scott (125-1). Of course, Scott is a former Masters champion and Lee strikes me as a great player with a fantastic short game. Lee’s only PGA Tour win came in the Memorial Park in Houston, which may also be similar to Augusta National in course configuration and layout style. Both players have had great starts in 2026. Scott finished fourth at Riviera, a course where he has won twice. He followed that up with an 11th-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. This year will mark Scott’s 25th time playing the Masters. He has only lost once since winning 13 years ago. I thought 125-1 was too high, and lately I’ve been seeing anywhere from 80 to 100-1 on the 45-year-old.
This will be Lee’s fifth time playing the Masters. His best finish is 14th place. He missed the cut once and also finished 22nd. Lee was 12th at Riviera this season, second at Pebble Beach and finished sixth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
I currently have six shows in my pocket. I can stand up, but I’m thinking if I add anything, it’ll just be one more. It’s very easy to stack Masters bets with the board being up and available for such a long period of time, but let’s remember, this is a smaller field and getting overwhelmed can rightfully happen faster than with a typical 130-player field. If you start picking apart the Masters field, it seems like only 30 players really have a chance to win. It’s unlikely to be a debutant, as that hasn’t happened since 1979, and we can’t expect it to be one of the seniors or one of the amateurs. So again, six or seven futures is already too many. We don’t want to get too carried away or it starts to affect potential profits too much.
The last two shows I did were earlier this month. Collin Morikawa (30-1) and Jordan Spieth (60-1). I played with Morikawa when he was threatening at Bay Hill a few weeks ago, a place where he finished runner-up last season. Morikawa already checks his win box this season, capturing the crown at Pebble Beach in February. In six visits to Augusta, he has never missed a cut. His last five finishes are as follows.. 14-3-10-5-18. Morikawa withdrew from The Players last week after experiencing back pain during a practice swing on just the second hole of the championship. I’m sure he’ll be ready to go next month.
As surprised as I was by the price for Scott, I was very happy to find 60-1 on Spieth. I found this on March 8th at William Hill. Now I’m seeing odds between 35 and 45-1. Anything 40-1 or higher is good in my opinion. He was 12th at Riviera this season and followed that up with an 11th finish at Bay Hill. At the time of writing, Spieth is off to a great start at the Valspar Championship. If this continues, his chances at the Masters are likely to drop even further.
A six pack is in for the Masters at the moment. As for the nets being cut down in Indianapolis that Monday of Masters Week, I hope it’s either Gonzaga, Michigan State, Vanderbilt, Illinois or Iowa State.
;)
