It’s impossible to ignore how much betting interest Tiger Woods brings to a major golf tournament.
Tiger hasn’t golfed professionally in over a year due to a horrific car accident and near loss of his right leg, yet he’s already making the most headlines at Augusta National Golf Club thanks to Tuesday’s announcement that he’ll shoot for his sixth green jacket this week.
Add that ingredient to an already-loaded betting field and you have a recipe for one of the most heavily bet Masters fields of all time. Ten of the world’s best players are all generating good buzz at the window.
Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Viktor Hovland, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa are all 20-1 or less at the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.
It’s a perfect storm for a sportsbook.
There’s no real clear-cut favorite, it creates a ton of head-to-head matchup markets and it’s much easier to balance the book’s bottom line when you’re not giving away good golfers at great prices.
“There?s a whole slew of golfers up there at 16-, 18- and 20-1 that have been playing well for a few months,” SuperBook vice president of risk management Jeff Sherman told NESN. “The money is getting spread out everywhere.
“Add Tiger Woods back into the mix and that adds even more money in the pot.”
Woods is a five-time Masters champion and bettors literally come out of the woodwork to fire bets on him when he?s in the field at Augusta. And most bettors aren’t price-sensitive when it comes to Tiger.
“We were at 100-1 last week,” Sherman said. “Last Tuesday, Tiger showed up for the practice round at Augusta and we took some money, so I went to 80 and we got more money there. As the momentum built, we went to 60 with anticipation that he’s actually going to play. The money keeps coming in.
“Somebody bet $1,000 on Tiger at 60-1 on Tuesday afternoon.”
The biggest Tiger ticket Sherman’s team wrote was a $1,046 bet at 100-1 this past January to win over $104,000. It’s extremely unlikely to win, but it’s still a hell of a payout should Woods pull off the unthinkable.
“You have a threshold on liability that you’re comfortable with,” Sherman explained. “You want to write bets, so you keep Tiger in perspective. He’s done amazing things in his career — including a Masters win in 2019 — but he hasn’t played in 14 months and he’s going up against guys that have played competitively week in and week out.
“For me, Tiger just playing at Augusta is a win. Asking him to come away with the trophy is a tough ask. So I have no problem with us taking bets on him.”
Multiple sportsbooks are offering exotic markets on Tiger, such as first-round score, finishes in the Top 5, Top 10 and Top 20, overall finishing position and a market that’s really been on the move: Tiger to make or miss the cut.
The SuperBook is dealing Tiger to make at +110 and miss at -130.
“I opened Tiger +120 to make the cut and -140 to miss,” Sherman said. “I moved it down to +110 Tuesday morning after his announcement. We took some sharp play down to even money (+100), then another sharp player hit us on the other side at -120 to miss.”
Whether Tiger is running hot, cold or on empty, he brings out the betting interest. He basically serves as a Masters magnet and bettors look to bet either on him or against him every time he qualifies.
“He?s the best golfer for handle that I?ve ever seen,” Sherman declared.
