As anticipation builds for the first major of the 2024 golf season, the Masters at the iconic Augusta National on 11-14 April, one player has notably hit peak form at arguably the perfect time — Scottie Scheffler.
The American’s recent tournament success has resulted in him being slashed to the 9/2 favourite in the betting on Masters golf 2024, which will see him start the tournament as the shortest-priced favourite in the prestigious tournament since Tiger Woods in 2013.
Scheffler, who has been ranked the best golfer in the world for an incredible 79 successive weeks at the time of writing, knows what it takes to successfully navigate the trials and tribulations of Augusta’s hallowed turf having won the Masters in 2022.
It is notoriously difficult to defend your Masters crown, but the 27-year-old made a good account of himself at last year’s tournament — handling the weight of expectation admirably to card a tied-10 finish as Spaniard Jon Rahm etched his name in the record books.
Scheffler’s consistency in the big tournaments continued last season with a third-place finish in the US Open and a career-best tied-second in the US PGA Championship when beaten by merely two strokes by Brooks Koepka.
On current form this season, Scheffler is primed to mount a challenge to regain his Masters title from Rahm, who has since sent shockwaves through the world of golf by joining the controversial breakaway league LIV Golf.
The World No.1 has finished outside the top 10 in just one of his seven starts this campaign at the time of writing, carding for tied-17th in The American Express in January. He was T5 in The Sentry before that and followed up with a T6 in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, T3 in the Phoenix Open, and T10 in the Genesis Invitational.
Those consistent performances finally turned into wins more recently though, as Scheffler won his second Arnold Palmer Invitational with a five-stroke victory over Wyndham Clark at Bay Hill Golf Course before successfully defending his Players Championship the following week.
Going into the Masters on the back of big tournament wins like those will have Scheffler brimming with confidence ahead of his bid to regain the Masters, and the bookmakers are running scared of the American given his incredibly short price in the golf betting.
The pressure of being the shortest-priced favourite in over a decade is heightened when you’re being likened to an all-time great Tiger Woods. Scheffler is not being drawn in by the comparisons to the 15-time major champion, claiming he’s going to stick to his game.
“Anytime you can be compared to Tiger is really special, but, I mean, the guy stands alone in our game,” Scheffler said after landing his second Players Championship. “He really does.
“This is my eighth tournament win now out here, I’ve tied him in Players Championships. Outside of that, I got 14 more majors and 70-some PGA TOUR events to catch up.
“So, I think I’m going to stick to my routine and just continue to plot along, try and stay as even-keeled as I can.”
