The Los Angeles Dodgers were the best team in baseball last year and proved it by winning the World Series. The Kansas City Chiefs might not have won the Super Bowl, but they made it there. And four No. 1 seeds reached the men’s Final Four for just the second time in bracket-busting history.
These chalky outcomes should have golf fans salivating over the potential for a similar result at this week’s Masters Tournament.
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are the top two golfers in the world, the most prolific winners over the past year and, not coincidentally, the favorites at Augusta National. Scheffler currently sits at +450 to win the event at BetMGM, while McIlroy comes in right behind him at +650. The next closest player on the betting board? Collin Morikawa, out at +1400. In the oddsmakers’ minds, it’s clearly Scottie and Rory vs. the field.
Of course, that doesn’t mean either will win, but any discussion of prognostications for the week should begin with a simple query: “Scottie or Rory?”
The answer to this question will likely hinge upon what you most value.
If you prefer course history over recent form, you’ll likely give the edge to Scheffler. If you favor booming drives over precise iron play, McIlroy might be your guy.
There’s more to it, though.
Your selection of one of the world’s two best golfers over the other doesn’t just say something about what you think of their games. Ultimately, it says something about you.
2025 Masters Tournament odds
Let’s start with Scheffler. If he’s your pick this week, you’re likely the type who doesn’t believe something can happen until you see it with your own eyes. You have a predilection to ride with favorites over underdogs because — as you tell people — those guys are favored for a reason. And you’d rather spend your hard-earned money on blue-chip stocks than a guy who’s a walking definition of insanity — you know, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Look, there’s a lot to be said for investing in a known commodity. Scheffler is the defending champion, and he’s claimed the green jacket in two of the last three years. He’s also fresh off a nine-win 2024 campaign, including an Olympic gold medal and the FedEx Cup title.
If his elite resume doesn’t impress you, he’s also trending in the right direction. After offseason hand surgery, he failed to win in his first five starts of the year, often wearing the emotional toll across his face. Heading into the recent Texas Children’s Houston Open — the final tournament start for both Scheffler and McIlroy before the Masters — there was a chance that another underwhelming performance by the former and a win from the latter could shift Rory into the pole position on oddsmakers’ boards.
Instead, Scottie finished in a share of second place, taking some momentum with him down Magnolia Lane.
Alright, now let’s do McIlroy. If he’s your guy this week, you’re probably the type who dreams big and believes that anything can happen if you really put your mind to it. You consider close calls and near-misses and heartbreakers all part of the scar tissue that goes into the experience of creating a champion. And you trust performance more than results, relying on recent statistical data to form your conclusion over historical victories.
In the past three years, each Masters winner had already won multiple events before arriving in Augusta. Only McIlroy owns that honor this year, with impressive triumphs at both Pebble Beach and The Players. He leads the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Total, which is the greatest barometer for performance at the game’s highest level. It’s difficult to argue that he’s ever been better prepared for the year’s first major championship than he is this time.
Oh, and over the course of his career, he’s tried just about every different way to prepare. He’s taken multiple scouting trips beforehand; he’s taken no scouting trips beforehand. He’s competed the week before, competed two weeks before and shut it down for a little while. If you can think it, he’s tried it.
Spoiler alert: None of it has worked — at least not to the extent that he’s wanted. Rory is now 0-for-16 in trying to win the Masters, and the failures are prominent. In 2011, he led going into the final nine, only to hook a tee shot into some cabins, post an inward 43 and finish in a share of 15th place. In 2022, he posted a miraculous final-round 64, but it was too little, too late, as Scheffler ran away with the title.
Overall, he owns four top-fives, seven top-10s and 12 top-25s but is still chasing his personal white whale, which — oh, by the way — would also make him the sixth player ever to capture the career Grand Slam.
There is an excellent chance that one of the world’s two best golfers will be sliding his arms into a green jacket in the sweet gloaming of Sunday evening just outside the Augusta National clubhouse. Even if we narrow down the champion to chalk, the question everyone is asking remains: “Scottie or Rory?”
The way you answer, the way you bet, and the way you root might have much more to do with you than them.
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images for The Showdown)
