Following the Genesis Open two weeks ago where Tiger Woods missed the cut, his odds to win the 2018 Masters leveled off at 25-1. That's a fair number for somebody who, on one hand, has four green jackets, but on the other hand, hasn't looked good in five years.
He narrowly made the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open to start the year and looked poor at Riviera and the Genesis. But after he shot even par at the Honda Classic last week and finished in 12th place, his odds dropped dramatically. Woods can now be considered one of the eight favorites for the first major of 2018.
Here's a look. Odds courtesy of Westgate Las Vegas Superbook.
| Golfer | Odds |
|---|---|
Dustin Johnson | 7-1 |
Jordan Spieth | 9-1 |
Rory McIlroy | 12-1 |
Jason Day | 12-1 |
Jon Rahm | 12-1 |
Justin Thomas | 12-1 |
Tiger Woods | 16-1 |
Rickie Fowler | 16-1 |
Justin Rose | 18-1 |
To put this in perspective, defending champion Sergio Garcia is 50-1 to win the event. Hideki Matsuyama, who has finished in the top 11 each of the past three years, is 25-1. Woods, who has not even played in the last two Masters, has rocketed up this list since it was released last August. At that time, right after the 2017 PGA Championship, he was 100-1 to win this event. Since then, his number has steadily dropped.
As always, people are reticent to be on the wrong side of history with Woods. He's certainly not one of the eight most likely to win this tournament, but nobody is more fun to bet on or root for at Augusta National come early April.
To be fair, he did look fabulous at the Honda Classic. But he didn't win, and he still finished behind guys like Sam Burns, Ben An and Dylan Frittelli. Look, I'm in on Woods' season. I said before the year that he would win an event and make the U.S. Ryder Cup team. I just don't think the Masters is going to be the event he wins. People smarter than me are buying what Big Cat is selling, too.
"Oh … 80 percent chance he'll be playing on the team," Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said this week about Woods and the Ryder Cup. "If the Ryder Cup were played next week, he'd get picked based upon what he did at the Honda, based upon who he is and what he did at -- if he had yucked it around like he did at Farmers at Honda and finished [23rd like he did at Torrey], he wouldn't have got picked.
"But he looked … he looked like a badass at Honda. He looked like 'Tiger Woods: Badass.' And with the exception of Sam Burns, nobody really played particularly well when they were playing with him."
The great news about all of this is that we only have to wait another month to see what Tiger is going to do at Augusta National. As he noted after the Honda last week, it's all been building towards the Masters for a while.
"I need to keep playing tournament golf, but I need to keep building on it," Woods said. "Keep building my body, keep building towards April. That was the goal when I first came back. I told you guys at Torrey, try and get everything situated for April and I feel like I'm right on track for that."
