Golf expert Ben Coley has scoured the myriad specials markets to unearth his best bets for the Masters, which begins on Thursday.
Golf betting tips: Masters specials
3pts e.w. Maverick McNealy to be the top debutant at 15/2 (Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4)
2pts e.w. Davis Thompson to be the top debutant at 15/2 (Sky Bet 1/5 1,2,3,4)
1pt double Ben An (top Korean) & Cam Smith (top Australian) at 10/1 (Sky Bet, Betway)
Top debutant
There are 21 first-timers this week but eight of them seem most unlikely to prove competitive in this market. Everyone from short-hitting Brian Campbell down can be discarded, I think, with the amateurs plus Lawrence and Rafael Campos easy to draw a line through.
That leaves us with 13 options from 15/2 to 20/1 and each-way betting to four places, so with a handful more I'd struggle to build a case for, this is one of my favourite markets of the week.
First up, world number 10 MAVERICK MCNEALY is the one they all have to beat.
Winner of the RSM Classic, runner-up in a Signature Event to Ludvig Aberg and then third last week in Texas, McNealy's best form over the past few months is of a very high standard and we only need to excuse two poor displays on courses he's never liked in Florida.
He's long, his iron play is much improved and he's a confident putter, so returning to the state in which he finally got off the mark late last year, he's one with half a chance of becoming the first debut winner since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979. Among these, he stands out as the clear pick.
It can be dangerous to underestimate Aaron Rai but both he and Taylor Pendrith could be spooked by these greens, as could Laurie Canter. Rasmus Hojgaard's long-game has been a bit of a mess lately and Thomas Detry's Phoenix romp is the outlier amid a run of generally so-so form.
As such the biggest threat to McNealy is DAVIS THOMPSON, whose game turned a corner at The PLAYERS before he again impressed with his approach work when 27th in Houston. As with McNealy, we only need forgive a poor fortnight on two penal Florida courses, both missed cuts coming by narrow margins.
Thompson was born a couple of hours away in Atlanta, went to the University of Georgia and lives at Sea Island, so this is the definition of a home game for a player of enormous potential. We saw it last summer when his breakthrough win came soon after ninth place in the US Open, and his quality long-game can ensure he makes the weekend.
Many of these will not, and it looks a fantastic market in which to have a good go at the two most likely winners.
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Top amateur
I'm not surprised that money has come for Jose Luis Ballester here. He won the Georgia Cup on Sunday, beating young pro Jacob Skov Olesen, and is a powerful Spaniard flying high in the World Amateur Golf Ranking since capturing the US Amateur last summer.
Ballester was 17th in the Mexico Open recently, doing everything well, and anything bigger than 2/1 probably paid too much respect to mid-amateur Evan Beck in particular. More likely a threat is Justin Hastings, ahead of Ballester when 13th in Mexico, though I do wonder if Hiroshi Tai could outperform his odds and at the revised prices he'd be my tentative pick.
Tai was at the Masters as a spectator last year as his college teammate was in the field, the duo hailing from nearby Georgia Tech. He's been on a few scouting trips, pairing up with a different local caddie each time, and has one of them on the bag just as Hastings does. Maybe that'll help and Tai looks a fair price at 8/1 for those inclined to have a stab at this guesswork-heavy market.
My sense is that Ballester will he hard to beat and with his price now the wrong side of 2/1, I'll sit it out rather than pivoting to Tai.
Top Korean
With no Si Woo Kim in the field we're down to just three and what's striking is that both Tom Kim and Sungjae Im are badly out of form. Kim has one top-30 in nine starts this year. Since last summer's play-off defeat at the Travelers, his results in the US read MC-50-MC-65-MC-7-44-44-MC-42-36-MC.
Im meanwhile has developed a massive problem with his approach play, which is key at Augusta. For the season so far he ranks 181st out of 186 PGA Tour players, an astonishing decline for a player of his calibre. That explains why he too has one top-30 finish from his last seven; his only good golf all year came at a course he loves, Torrey Pines.
Enter BYEONG HUN AN, who ranked second in strokes-gained tee-to-green when 16th here last year, finishing ahead of both compatriots. His form is much stronger with two top-20s in his last three, he bagged a pair of major top-20s in 2024, he's won since (beating Kim in a play-off), and right now is the best of this trio.
Anything but a horrific putting display should make him hard for two out-of-sorts players to beat. Given that An is upwards of 2/1 in places, he rates good value.
Top Australian
I'm a huge fan of Min Woo Lee and put him up for the Masters two years ago. His dynamite short-game and the length he has in his locker means that if and when he does start to dial in his approaches, a green jacket is absolutely possible.
Right now though, he's favourite for this market because he won in Houston, on a soft course which allowed him to hit it anywhere and largely get away with it. There are some Augusta parallels but it was much easier than I'd expect this week to be and, to put it bluntly, there's no way he should be shorter than CAMERON SMITH.
While Min Woo's Augusta credentials feature a couple of promising top-30s, Smith has been a regular contender: fifth in 2018, second in 2020, 10th in 2021, third in 2022, sixth last year. He is so very comfortable at this course and, having also played his best golf of the year last time out, this new dad should be raring to go.
I do respect Jason Day, back with his old coach Col Swatton, but with Adam Scott struggling and Cam Davis badly out of sorts, 5/2 Smith is too big. I'd swap him and Lee in the market and then shave a little more off Smith's price to be sure. We're getting value here and 10/1 the double with An looks a smashing bet.
Top South African
I was initially pretty keen to side with 2011 champion Charl Schwartzel after his runner-up finish at Doral. His form so far in 2025 reads 20-14-2, he was good towards the back-end of last year as well, and he faces two beatable rivals. It will probably prove as simple as that.
Thriston Lawrence is certainly easy to oppose. Last summer's Open contender has endured a miserable start to life on the PGA Tour and Augusta seems sure to expose his shortcomings, even if he did play a little better in Texas last week. Stopping the rot on his debut here will be a massive challenge.
The problem is, Christiaan Bezuidenhout has made all three Masters cuts and, when firing, boasts one of the best short-games in this field. He's arguably a step ahead of Schwartzel if you take a full view of their respective efforts over the past 12 months and when they've teed it up together, Bezuidenhout's prices have reflected that fact.
Indeed since 2020, Bezuidenhout leads their head-to-head 19-9 and now even holds a lifetime lead. Augusta definitely tips the scales in Schwartzel's favour (and he's 3-0 up on Bezuidenhout here), as does his very recent form. It's just that the market doesn't seem to have missed anything to my eye.
Posted at 1305 BST on 08/04/25
More Masters content
- Outright betting preview and tips
- Player-by-player guide to the field
- First-round leader and three-balls
- Specials bets from Ben Coley
- Expert picks from other writers
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