2013 Masters

I saw Tiger's latest 3rd round...he looked amazing.  Considering he's won 6 of his last 20 tournaments, is #1 in the world, and has won this event more than anybody else who is competing...I think it's fair to say he's the favorite.  I will be rooting for Mr. Woods.  

I am fully rooting for Tiger.  I'd love to see him win it again, and I actually think that there'd be nothing greater, currently, for the sport than for Tiger to return to the form of his glory days.

He's already won three tournaments this year, and if he can pull this one off, then I think that you will start to see people drawing comparison's to his historic 2000 season when he had 10 Tour wins.

You would probably always do better by picking the field than an individual player BUT Tiger does look good.  Mostly due to his putting which seems to have come back to him.  He's staying out of too much trouble as well.

Well...if you look at the odds of all the players you listed, do some loose guesswork on how much "juice" Vegas is charging compared to the actual odds...your list of players totals to about a 55-60% chance of winning.  If you gave me 2:1 odds on the field against your list...I'd take it.

In the past 6 years, you've got 5 winners who were not heavy favorites entering the tournament.
07' Zach Johnson
08' Trevor Immelman
09' Angel Cabrera
10' Phil Mickelson
11' Charl Schwartzel
12' Bubba Watson

As for picking an individual golfer...it's so tough to pick against Tiger when he's putting well.  The last time he won the Masters was WAY BACK in 2005.  Hard to believe, but he's actually played well there most years...but his putter has let him down.  Because of the greens, he always seems to take the approach of shooting to the "safe" area of the green instead of firing at the pins.  The problem with that is you have to make a lot of 12'-20' putts otherwise you just end up with a bunch of pars on the 3's and 4's, and even if you made birdie on all the par 5's (-16), it usually isn't enough to overcome the bogey's you'll still make along the way.

I'll be rooting for Tiger, but the scoring is so volitile at Augusta, I wouldn't be surprised if anyone wins. 

Awesome synopsis.  btw, I've gotta say The Masters is my personal favorite as a golf viewer.  Hopefully, we get another "Bubba-like" moment this year.  His beautiful hook-shot out of the pine straw was so much fun to watch.  Can't wait!

No Masters thread is complete without the Masters theme song!

BTW I vote Phil.  He does best when the attention is elsewhere.  Not sure how a 3-time winner can possibly fly under the radar but that's what we've got.

x2. Great analysis. I agree that I'd bet against the OP's list if given 2/1. The website I found:

http://www.oddschecker.com/golf/us-masters/us-masters/winner

shows that Tiger is most commonly at 7/2 or 4/1 and 6 of the top 10 are not on the OP's list:

Justin Rose

Charl Schwartzel

Adam Scott

Louis Oosthuizen

Lee Westwood

Luke Donald

I'm rooting for Adam Scott. He was 2nd in 2011 and 8th in 2012 at The Masters, and of course was so close last year at The Open Championship.

Nice!

I'd certainly choose the field over Tiger.

I voted Tiger.

When he's healthy, not only is he the best player in the field, he is probably the best to have ever played the game.

If you're a smart gambler, of course the smart bet is "the field."  Even as well as Tiger's playing, he has won 6 of his last 20 tournaments. (30%...which is likely lots greater than all the rest)  It's obviously greater than the nearest competitor, but when you've got scores of the best players in the world nipping at your heels, a victory isn't the most likely probability out there.  The same stat could be looked at like this, Tiger's lost 70% of his last 20 tournaments.  

I'll still be pulling for him.  If for some reason he screws the pooch on Thursday and Friday, I'll root for my secondary favs. like Phil, Bubba, Watson, and Ernie.

I don't have too many out there I root against...Duval the robot doesn't play anymore.  I just want to see some great golf.

There are also a whole host of very solid European players who have a history of performing well in the Master's including, but not limited to Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Luke Donald, & Lee Westwood.  I think any one of those guys has a great chance at winning.

I found myself wasting the entire night watching Master's coverage last night even though nothing has really started yet!

Waste?  No way...love that stuff.  I thought it was pretty funny to watch the 2 grandkids of Charles Coody ('71 champ) re-telling some of the highlights of their grandfather's win and one twin kept correcting the other because he got the facts (hole numbers, birdie vs par, etc) mixed up. 

Yeah, that was awesome!  I also loved the interview with Bubba and his obvious love & respect for everything related to Augusta and the Master's.

Rory had a bad spell of playing poorly but seems to be back to his old form.

I guess I'm rooting for Tiger since he generates headlines which is good for golf in general as compared to anyone else in the field. 

I haven't followed golf closely in some years but it really matters how you are playing at the moment.  If your game is off you have no shot at the Masters or any major for that matter.  Justin Rose has been playing well lately IIRC.