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Horse Racing Early Masters 2024 Best Bet
The Masters Best Bet: Thursday, August 31st
Augusta National will once again be the host course for The Masters in 2024. We have analysed the early betting markets to bring you our Masters best bet.
- Selection: Dustin Johnson
- Best Odds: 41.00 (bet365)
- Stakes: 1/10
Odds via bet365 as at 11.45 30th August 2023. Odds may now differ.
In this article:
Early 2024 Masters Best Bet
This year’s winner, Jon Rahm, heads up the early betting for the 2024 Masters but he makes very little appeal. Defending any title is hard but hosting a champions dinner along with extra media demands make a successful defence at The Masters ever harder. In the past thirteen years, only four players have posted a top 25 finish in The Masters following their win at Augusta and I don’t see Rahm adding a second consecutive Green Jacket to his locker.
Scottie Scheffler’s consistency aligned with the fact he’s yet to finish worse than 19th in four Masters appearances mean that he is the man I rate most likely to triumph in Augusta next April. However, backing 10.00 selections seven months before the start of a tournament isn’t the purpose of this article and much can change between now and then. We only have to look back to 2017, when Dustin Johnson fell down the stairs the week before The Masters, to see how a player can look like a good selection, only for fate to intervene.
Coincidentally, it is Johnson who I most like the look of in the early betting. Odds of 41.00 reflect the fact the two time Major winner has had a poor 2023 by his very high standards. One win to date on LIV Golf and a top 10 finish in the U.S. Open are far below what we expect from a player who has been an extremely consistent performer over the years.
Johnson’s overall Masters record is incredibly consistent. A winner in 2020, he also had four top ten finishes in four starts between 2014 and 2019. His length off the tee and touch around the greens is an ideal combination around Augusta and he certainly has all the necessary attributes to win again.
Johnson’s Masters form since 2020 is a slight concern. However, a missed cut in 2021 doesn’t overly bother me given how often defending champions struggle. A twelfth place finish in 2022 was acceptable but this year’s finish of 48th was well below expectations.
Johnson was the number one player on LIV Golf last year and whilst he’s not quite replicated that form this year, he is still a player capable of winning at the highest level. The former world number one will turn 40 in June next year and that significant birthday may well inspire him to rededicate himself to the game in pursuit of a third major championship.
Further inspiration may well come in the form of Johnson not being selected for the USA Ryder Cup team in Rome this Autumn. Johnson was the star man last time out, claiming five points from his five matches at Whistling Straits. He wasn’t even in the conversation for selection this time around and that may well be something that instigates a big year in 2024.
Johnson can be backed at an industry best price of 41.0 with bet365 to don the Green Jacket once again. The American is as short as 21.0 with some other bookmakers, some within the industry taking the view that form is temporary and class is permanent. I tend to agree that Johnson’s poor form this year is a blip rather than a wider decline.
Further confirmation that odds of 41.00 is value can be found when contrasting Johnson’s price to win the other Majors in 2024. Johnson is a best price of 34.00 to win the U.S. Open or U.S. PGA Championship and I’d certainly favour Johnson at Augusta than either of those events.
Early suggestions are that the LIV Golf schedule in 2024 is going to open with some strong events and it could well be that Johnson starts the year with significantly more momentum than he did this time around. He had only played in three competitive events prior to teeing it up at this year’s Masters, an injury prior to the Saudi International preventing him making at least one further start. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him arrive at Augusta far more prepared in 2024 and ready to make a run at a second Green Jacket.
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