Tiger Woods has caused a stir in more ways than one as The Masters approaches. Not only has he sent the rumour mill into overdrive on whether he intends to play next week, but he’s also created a considerable buzz in the betting world.
There has been an enormous surge of bets being placed on Woods to claim the Green Jacket for the sixth time in his career. Woods last won The Masters in 2019, and he has attracted 7.6% of the bets on him to repeat the feat in the last day. He's also in a group of four with at least 5% of bets placed on them. The others on the list are World No.4 Viktor Hovland with 6.1%, new World No.1 Scottie Scheffler with 5.5% and Players Champion Cameron Smith with 5.1%.
Despite the surge, oddsmakers don’t fancy Woods’ chances of winning, giving him the longest odds of his career. According to OddsChecker, Woods has odds of +6600 (66/1) to win next week, which is an implied 1.5% chance and tied with two-time winner Bubba Watson, 2013 winner Adam Scott and 2018 winner Patrick Reed. That places him just 21st on the odds market and even lower than last year’s +4000 (40/1) odds.
OddsChecker spokesman Kyle Newman said: “The betting market over the last 24 hours is crazy. At the top stands Tiger Woods with +6600 odds, the next nine golfers all have +2000 odds or better. Not a single longshot among them. Bettors have decided that Tiger Woods is their longshot to win this year and have put their full support behind him. Quite the move after Corey Conners was in that place earlier in the week with 3.2% of bets, 7th on the market at the time.”
Woods has yet to confirm whether he will play at next week’s Major, although there is growing speculation he is doing all he can to make it, fuelled by him playing a practice round at Augusta National earlier in the week.
