Sports Blog 03/04/2017: Golf Preview – The Masters, Thursday 6th to Sunday 9th April 2017

It’s time for the first major championship of the 2017 PGA Tour, with the world’s best travelling to Augusta, Georgia for the 81st Masters!

Things are pretty tight at the top, with Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth leading in all of Spreadex’s various fixed odds and spread betting opportunities. In terms of the latter, there is the Leaderboard Index, where the winner gets 80 points, 2nd place 40, 3rd place 30 etc, and the Tournament Binary spreads, which makes up to 100 if the golfer wins and 0 if they don’t.



Last year’s US Open victor Johnson – who is currently world no. 1 and winner of 3 tournaments so far this season (the Genesis Open, WGC Mexico Championship and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play) – is the favourite, with a Leaderboard Index spread of 18-21, a Tournament Binary spread of 10.5-15.4 and a fixed odds price of 11/2.

Despite being ranked in 6th place Spieth is just behind Johnson, at a Leaderboard Index spread of 16-19, a Tournament Binary spread of 9-13.4 and fixed odds of 13/2. The youngster’s explosive 2015, where he won both the Masters and the US Open, finished tied for 4th at the Open Championship and was the PGA Championship runner-up, was followed by a miserable 2016. However, the Augusta National Golf Club does appear to be where Spieth is at his best – his only notable performance at a major last year was finishing in joint 2nd at the Masters –explaining the discrepancy between his PGA ranking and his Spreadex position heading into the 2017 tournament.

Spieth’s ascendancy means that world no.2 Rory McIlroy has to settle for being 3rd favourite ahead of the weekend’s competition. That’s perhaps because the Northern Irishman is yet to win a Masters title in his illustrious career; his best finish came in 2015 where he took 4th place, while last year he came in tied for 10th. Like Spieth, McIlroy sits at a Leaderboard Index spread of 16-19, but with a Tournament Binary spread of 9.3-12.5 and a fixed odds price of 7/1.

Beyond those 3 frontrunners, Rickie Fowler has a Leaderboard Index spreads of 7.5-9.5, as does Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama, while last year’s winner Danny Willett is at a measly 1.25-2.25 (with a big ol’ fixed odds price of 100/1).