Here, in the piece headlined “2024 Masters sleeper picks to watch: Here’s who might break out at Augusta,” you won’t find Scottie Scheffler. Or Jon Rahm. Or Rory McIlroy. Or Brooks Koepka. Their odds to win are too good. We’ll be digging deeper.
Into the 100-1 bunch.
Where you’ll find a dude:
— Who tied for sixth at the Players Championship;
— Who, after his Players final round, said he believed he was focusing better;
— Who hasn’t missed a cut in nine events this year;
— Who hasn’t missed a cut at Augusta National since doing so at his first Masters, with finishes of 29th, 39th, 34th, 12th, 21st and 24th
And there’s also this, which was first spotted by CBS’ Kyle Porter: Entering last week’s Texas Open, the pro was third this season on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green. Above him were: Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, while immediately below him were Hideki Matsuyama, Shane Lowry and Tony Finau.
Or put another way, in that metric, you’ll find a pro with 100-1 odds to win the Masters — among players who have 4-1 odds (Scheffler), 20-1 odds (Schauffele), 28-1 odds (Matsuyama), 40-1 odds (Lowry) and 33-1 odds (Finau).
Interesting.
Of course, backing Si Woo Kim is risky.
The putting has been worrisome this year (138th in SG: Putting). And there’s also his adventurous moment in 2021, when he snapped his putter on the 15th green. (On the final three greens, he putted with his 3-wood.) And those are among the reasons he’s lower on the odds board.
But there’s maybe some value to be found.
With that, let’s continue to dig. Below, members of our staff have each made a long-shot selection to assist you with your own weekly picks, whether those are for a low-stakes office fantasy league, or (legal!) big-bucks bets with a sportsbook. It’s an enjoyable endeavor for us. Deploy it as you wish.
On to our analysis.
