Masters Field Set at 86 Players, Rory McIlroy Now Favored Over Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods

Posted on: April 2, 2019, 01:00h. 

Last updated on: April 1, 2019, 01:23h.

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The 2019 Masters field is all but set at just 86 players. Only the winner of this week’s Valero Texas Open in San Antonio can additionally qualify for golf’s first major of the year.

Masters golf odds McIlroy Woods Johnson
Rory McIlroy is the odds-on favorite to win the Masters next week in Georgia. (Image: Andrew Redington/Getty)

At 8/1, Rory McIlroy is now the frontrunner, but Dustin Johnson (10/1) and Tiger Woods (12/1) are lurking. With a green jacket, McIlroy, 29, would complete the career grand slam and claim his fifth major in his hall of fame career.

Bettors who take the 8/1 odds and risk $100 will net $800 should Rory sit down with Jim Nantz in the Butler Cabin Sunday evening. DJ is also seeking his first green jacket, while Woods is chasing his fifth Masters title and 15th overall major – but his first in more than a decade.

Kevin Kisner – who won the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play on Sunday after topping Matt Kuchar – is at 60/1 to win his first major.

I don’t think I played my best all week, really,” Kisner said Sunday evening. “I feel like I just did what I needed to do.”

A Kisner Masters win would net bettors $6,000 for every $100 risked. Kisner has just one sub-70 round out of 12 trips around Augusta National. His best finish (T28) came a year ago.

Lucas Bjerregaard, who beat Woods in match play but lost to Kisner in the final, is at 150/1 in his Masters debut.

Former Champions

Winners of the Masters receive lifetime invitations to drive down Magnolia Lane in early April. Along with Woods, there are 19 other players with green jackets in their wardrobes who will tee it up on April 11.

They include defending champion Patrick Reed (50/1), Bubba Watson (25/1), Sergio Garcia (25/1), and Phil Mickelson (30/1).

In his first Masters in three years, Woods finished T32 in last year’s tournament. He’s played well since, winning The Tour Championship to close the 2018 PGA Tour season, and making all five cuts in the five tournaments he’s entered in 2019. His best finish came over the weekend when he finished T5 at the match play.

Some of the older winners with longer odds include fan-favorite Freddy Couples (500/1), two-time winner Jose Maria Olazabal (3000/1), and Sandy Lyle, Larry Mize, and Ian Woosnam at 5000/1.

Small Field

Entry into the Masters is by invite only. In addition to lifetime exemptions for winners, invites go out to the world’s top 50 ranked golfers, five-year exemptions for winners of the other three majors, the current US Amateur champion and runner-up, and winners of PGA Tour events over the last 12 months.

Once in, the Masters is considered the easiest of the four tournaments to win due to its small field size. That is especially true this year, as at just 86 players the field will be the smallest since Woods won his first green jacket back in 1997.

The field sizes of the US Open, PGA Championship, and Open Championship are all 156 players – or 70 more than the number of players who are invited to Augusta, Georgia, in 2019.