This is a tournament that rarely goes in for the the total surprise winner, so who are the leading favourites for this year's Masters at Augusta?
The Masters Favourites 2021: 4 Players It’s Hard To Look Past…
Who will be slipping into the Green Jacket this year?
Chances are, it will be one of the favourites who have great form, a high world ranking and experience of winning big events, Majors and FedEx Cup titles.
Dustin Johnson is as low as 8/1 with the bookies as he enters the week favourite to win his second consecutive Masters title.
The Masters Favourites 2021: 4 Players It’s Hard To Look Past…
Dustin Johnson
Dustin Johnson is one of the most obvious favourites for this year’s Masters. He knows what it takes to do well at Augusta.
That is true even when you ignore last autumn’s effort, when he shot a record 20 under and won by five shots – the largest victory margin since Tiger Woods’ 12-shot one in 1997.
Go further back than that and you see that he has finished in the top 10 in each of his past five Masters appearances. His last 11 rounds at Augusta have all been under par.
Since last autumn’s Masters win, his form has not been strong – one top-10 in five events. He came T54 at World Golf Championships at The Concession and T48 at The Players. Yet it has not been enough to put people off making DJ the favourite.
Bryson DeChambeau
Last year there was much well hype frankly, surrounding DeChambeau. Good judges were saying that he could overpower the course.
The man himself said he was viewing the layout as a par 67 for this reason.
In the end he scraped through the cut and finished tied in 34th. His best finish at the Masters is 29th.
Over two-thirds of the last 30 champions had made the top 10 at least once before, while six of the last eight winners had already finished fourth or better in a Masters.
So if DeChambeau does win, it will be statistically unusual. But then, unusual is his usual.
Justin Thomas
Remember that stat about six of the last eight Masters winners finishing fourth better at a previous Masters? Well Thomas came 4th five months ago.
There is another stat knocking around that the typical Masters winner has five unsuccessful stabs at it before triumphing. This is Thomas’ sixth Masters.
He has been steadily improving around Augusta – his results are T39, T22, T17, T12 and 4.
He is in form as he recently won The Players Championship.
See where people’s thinking is going on this one?
Jon Rahm
The 27-year-old Spaniard has three top 10 finishes in his previous four Masters starts.
He has spoken of how he has been inspired by his favourite player, countryman Seve Ballesteros. Seve was a two-time Masters winner.
But Rahm does not reckon he should be among the favourites for this year’s Masters. He counsels against betting on him.
He is soon to become a father. He is determined to be at the birth of his first born, so will leave whatever he is doing at the time- even if that thing is leading down the final straight of the Masters. “Being a father is more important than any golf event can be,” he explains.
This article The Masters Favourites 2021: 4 Players It’s Hard To Look Past… appeared first on Golf Monthly.