Are you confident that Tiger Woods can recapture some Augusta magic on Thursday?
The 48-year-old is a +12500 long shot to win his sixth green jacket this year. It’s highly improbable that he’ll be able to put together four great rounds to be at or near the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. But it’s not out of the question that he could start the tournament strongly.
Woods is +115 at BetMGM to post a round of even par or better during his first round. Woods is set to tee off at 1:24 p.m. ET on Thursday in a group that also includes Jason Day and Max Homa.
Woods has made the cut in 23 consecutive Masters dating back to his first win in 1997. Woods has only missed the cut once in Masters history. That came in 1996 when he shot 75-75 in 1996 to go home early.
Overall, Woods has shot even par or better in 16 of his 25 first rounds played at Augusta National. Before shooting a 74 on a balky right ankle a year ago, Woods had broken par in the first round in his last three Masters starts.
If you’re looking for the case against Woods getting off to a good start, you don’t have to look much further than the weather forecast. Rain is set to hit Augusta Wednesday night into Thursday morning and it’s probable that first-round tee times will get pushed back. If Woods’ group is pushed back a couple of hours, it may not be able to complete the round before sunset. Given the amount of warmup and prep it takes Woods to get ready to play a round of competitive golf, an early wakeup to resume the first round on Friday could be rough.
There are plenty of other props available on Woods’ first-round performance too. He’s -105 to have four or more birdies and eagles in his round and -150 to find the fairway with his opening tee shot. He’s also -135 to birdie one of the four par 3s at Augusta.
The long-shot bets include +800 to birdie the first hole, +900 to make an eagle at any point in the round and +2800 to go bogey-free over the course of the round.
Woods had five bogeys on the way to a 2-over 74 in 2023. His last bogey-free first round at the Masters came in 2020 when he had four birdies and shot a 68 in the pandemic-delayed tournament.
You have to go much further back to find Woods’ most recent eagle in the first round. He tends to play conservatively to start the Masters and hasn’t eagled a hole on Thursday since the 2010 Masters when he eagled both No. 8 and No. 15 on the first day.
