The Masters 2024 specials betting tips, golf predictions & best odds

The Masters 2024 specials tips

• Top debutant - Wyndham Clark 4/1 with BetUK
• First-round leader - Jordan Spieth 28/1 each-way with SpreadEx
• Top 10 - Corey Conners 5/1 with Unibet
• Top 20 - Nick Taylor 9/2 with BetMGM
• Top LIV golfer - Cameron Smith 9/1 with bet365
• To miss the cut - Justin Thomas 5/2 with Betway

The Masters is one of the highlights of the sporting calendar and you can read our three outright selections for the Green Jacket by clicking on this link.

Here, though, the focus is on the dozens of specials markets for the first major of the year, which starts on Thursday (from 1.30pm, Sky Sports Golf)

We have trawled the UK betting sites and picked out the best Masters odds for what many regard as the world’s greatest major.

Top Masters debutant tips

There are 20 golfers heading to Augusta for the first time, five of whom are amateurs, so realistically there are only a handful of players that can be crowned top debutant.

Masters betting sites suggest it’s a two-horse race between Ryder Cup star Ludvig Aberg and Wyndham Clark, with Akshay Bhatia and Denny McCarthy next at 8/1 and 11/1 respectively

Bhatia’s long-term shoulder injury resurfaced after a fist-pump secured a play-off with McCarthy at last week’s Texas Open which he went on to win, but with doubts surrounding his fitness, the top two in the betting seem to have this market covered.

Both players are inside the world’s top 10, but US Open champion Clark gets the nod after a spectacular start to the season which produced a victory at Pebble Beach and back-to-back runners-up spots at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship.

They have similar strokes gained numbers across the various metrics, but Clark’s putting stats give him the edge against one of the most exciting talents on the planet, with BetUK standing out from the other gambling sites at 4/1.

Masters top debutant tip: Wyndham Clark 4/1 with BetUK

The Masters first-round leader tips

Getting off to a fast start is essential to the prospects of success at Augusta, where 17 of the last 18 winners have been inside the top 10 after round one.

Of course, you don’t need to top the leaderboard on Thursday to win the tournament - just ask Justin Rose, who has led the field after the opening round on four occasions without success and is 80/1 with Unibet to make it a fifth.

However, aside from a decent showing at Pebble Beach, Rose has made a miserable start to the season and has missed the cut in his last two events, so we prefer the prospects of Jordan Spieth, who has a spectacular record at Augusta.

Spieth won the tournament in 2015 and should have retained his title a year later only to squander a five-shot lead heading into the back nine where a catastrophic quadruple-bogey at the 12th opened the door for Danny Willett.

For our purposes, Spieth has led after day one on three occasions (2015, 2016 and 2018) and was just outside the top 10 last year.

The American has been inside the top 10 after the opening round in four of his last nine tournaments, so bursting out of the blocks is nothing new for a player who holds Augusta close to his heart.

SpreadEx are the pick of the betting apps in this market and offer 28/1 on Spieth to top Thursday’s leaderboard.

SpreadEx are paying out on five places in their first round leader market on each-way bets at one-quarter the odds.

Masters first-round leader tip: Jordan Spieth - 28/1 each-way with SpreadEx

The Masters top 20 finish tips

Corey Conners looks an interesting prospect at 5/1 with Unibet for a top-10 finish and also features as one of our Masters outright selections, but his fellow Canadian Nick Taylor stands out as a top-20 option on what will be only his second appearance at this iconic course.

Taylor has described this year’s US Masters as his first “true experience” of Augusta as his first took place without a crowd after the Covid lockdown in 2020 and in the cooler conditions of November.

That was the year Taylor won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his second PGA Tour title and since then has added two more at his native Canadian Open in June last year and the Phoenix Open just two months ago.

Taylor missed the cut in all three majors last year which he attributed to “odd circumstances” such as the birth of his daughter and the expected post-celebration slump of his success in Toronto, but the stars have aligned before Augusta and he says his “game is in a really good spot”.

This could be the year Taylor ends his poor majors record and BetMGM top the golf betting sites for a top-20 finish at 9/2.

Masters top-10 tip: Corey Conners - 5/1 with Unibet

Masters top-20 tip: Nick Taylor - 9/2 with BetMGM

The Masters top LIV golfer tips

Of all the US Masters specials in this column, Cameron Smith is the headline pick to be the top LIV golfer.

That would mean finishing in front of defending champion Jon Rahm, but the Spaniard has not won an event since joining the Saudi-financed project in December.

Players rarely make a successful Masters defence and although Tiger Woods achieved the feat in 2002, he is only the fourth man to do so.

Brooks Koepka, the in-form Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson also stand in the way of the 2022 Open champion, who has finished inside the top 10 in four of his last six visits to Augusta National.

Smith’s preparations have not been ideal, pulling out after the opening round of last week’s LIV Golf event in Miami owing to sickness, but the Aussie’s strength and conditioning coach, Nic Catterall, later confirmed he would be “fine for the Masters”.

Although his last full strokeplay tournament came a month ago in Hong Kong where he lost a play-off with Paul Casey and winner Abraham Ancer, Smith’s class - especially his putting - should give him a great chance of launching another challenge at a course where he has finished second and third in two of the last four years.

So long as he is healthy, Smith looks a great prospect to lead the LIV golfers field for which bet365 are the pick of the gambling sites at 9/1.

Top LIV golfer tip: Cameron Smith 9/1 with bet365

To miss the cut at The Masters tip

Justin Thomas had never missed the cut at Augusta until last year, and in his last outing at the Valspar Championship, he produced the worst round of his career in terms of putting.

Having moved into a share of the lead with a birdie at the first on Saturday, Thomas ended up taking 38 putts, losing seven strokes to the field in finishing in a tie for 64th.

Thomas has since parted company with long-time caddie Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay and although he said this week he felt he was “playing well”, the demons must have descended after that nightmare round on the Copperhead greens and he looks susceptible to suffering the ignominy of a free weekend.

To miss the cut at The Masters: Justin Thomas 5/2 with Betway

Free bet offers for The Masters

Bookmakers are ramping up their offers ahead of the Masters this week and Parimatch have one of the best on the market, offering enhanced odds of 30/1 on the red-hot Scottie Scheffler winning his second Green Jacket.

The offer is available to new customers only who click the link below, open an account and opt in to the promotion. 

Once you've done that, make an initial deposit via debit card or Apple Pay and then head to the Masters outright market. Place a maximum £1 bet on Scheffler to win at the normal price. 

If the bet wins, you'll be paid out your winnings from the original bet in cash, with the rest credited to your account in the form of £29 in free bets. 

Before signing up with Parimatch or any new betting sites, check the terms and conditions of the welcome offer first. If you do have a bet on The Masters, please gamble responsibly.