Masters 2011 Odds to Win - It Not Just About Who's Going To Win the Tournament
by Charles Jay
If you are evaluating the Masters 2011 odds to win, you need to know that it's not just about who is going to win the tournament outright. There are a lot of ways where golfers, and in turn, PGA bettors, can win with propositions on the Masters, which begins Thursday and runs through Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Phil Mickelson is the overall favorite to win at +600, but there are many other "favorites" in the Masters 2011 odds to win, including Rory McIlroy, who is favored to be the "Top Irish" player at +120, and K.J. Choi, who is the "Top Asian" at +120.
Who will the "Top Englishman" be? Right now Lee Westwood is the world's second-ranked player, and he is the favorite for that title. Westwood, who not long ago lost his top world spot to Martin Kaymer, was the Masters runner-up last year and has finished among the top three in five of the last ten majors he has played in. He is +150 in the Masters 2011 odds to win this category. Luke Donald (+250) is another guy trying to win his first major, and even though he has two top ten finishes to his credit at Augusta, he has, by the same token, missed two of the last three cuts. Paul Casey (+400) and Justin Rose (+400) are also on this list, and they can make up for the disappointment of getting snubbed from the Ryder Cup. Ian Poulter, another top 20 player (listed at +500) may also be an attractive play.
The list of Irish players at the Masters is not deep, but the competition should be intense among the three players who are listed in the proposition. The favorite, Rory McIlroy (+120 in Masters 2011 odds to win) is the only one of the three who has never won a major, but he's 21 years old, and the consensus among everybody is that he is going to put a lot of hardware in his trophy case before all is said and done. Then you've got last year's U.S. Open winner, Graeme McDowell (+150) and Padraig Harrington (+150), who's won three majors, on the list.
Like McIlroy, another guy who is looking to break through to win a major is K.J. Choi, who was third in the 2004 Masters and tied for fourth last year. In the proposition for the "Top Asian" player, he is favored at +120, and while you can't say the list in this category is all that deep, it does include Y.E. Yang (+180 in Masters 2011 odds to win), who won the 2009 PGA title and then turned around in his next major after that and posted a tie for 8th last year. Make no mistake - not only are Choi and Yang the two strongest players in this prop category, they are also threats to win the tournament outright; Choi is priced at +5500 and Yang is posted at +8000 in the Masters 2011 odds to win.
And while we're on the subject of the "Top Asian," I want to throw another name into the mix as a longshot youngster. He's Jin Jeong, a South Korean native who has spent quite a bit of time in Australia, and was at one point the world's #1 amateur player. He's still an amateur, but will turn pro right after this event. Last year he lit St. Andrews on fire, before settling into a top 15 finish and the designation of "low amateur" in the British Open. maybe he gets to make some noise at Augusta; maybe not enough to win the whole thing, but a stroke or two of luck and he might contend for Asian honors, for which he is priced at +3000 in the Masters 2011 odds to win.
