2025 Masters: Four Key Betting Storylines to Watch Throughout the Weekend at Augusta National

The 89th edition of the Masters Tournament has arrived to tee off the first major of the year at Augusta National, a tradition unlike any other.

95 hopeful champions will take the course in Georgia but only one will leave with the coveted green jacket and their place in golf history.

We're gearing up for this year's action with our best bets and predictions for the Masters, our full Masters Tournament projections, in-house golf rankings and our one-of-a-kind Head-to-Head matchup simulator.

Though the green jacket ceremony, famously cheap food prices at The Masters and Jim Nantz monologue are more than enough to satiate even the most casual golf fan, we're looking at the storylines that have our attention ahead of this year's festivities, from first-time winners, returning champions and more.

For more on the 2025 Masters Tournament:

• 2025 Masters Tee Times
• Best Bets, Picks, Predictions at The Masters
• Who will Make/Miss cut at The Masters?
• Our +883 PGA vs. LIV Parlay
• +3001 First Round 3-Ball Parlay

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Four Major Storylines at the 2025 Masters Tournament

There are four golf major tournaments a year so why not stick with the theme? Here are four "major" storylines at the first major of the year:

Rory's Elusive Achievement

Rory McIlroy is one of golf's best talents with four major titles to his name. However, that's due to twice winning the PGA Championship . Despite having four major wins, he's never donned the green jacked after the final round at Augusta National.

The closest he's come on the final leaderboard is a 2nd-place finish in 2022 and he infamously entered the final round with a four-stroke lead in 2011, before a back-nine collapse saw him finish just T15.

This will be his 17th try since turning pro in 2007 and on the bright side, our model gives him a top three probability to win.

The downside? It's just 6.9%, less than half at what we project Scottie Scheffler. And for bettors, that means you want odds of +1350 for McIlroy to win, but you can only get him at +750, and that's only thanks to boosted odds at bet365.

Scheffler and Schauffele Looking for First Win in 2025

For these top talents, maybe Augusta National will bring more than just a green jacket, but the first win of the year.

With nine combined wins last year, including three out of four majors, it's only a matter of time.

The World No.1 is still looking to break through after hand surgery following a wine glass mishap during the holidays. Scheffler's come close, a T3 and T2, but has also faltered down the stretch at times. He's our model's favorite this week with a 14.9% probability, fair at +570. He's the only golfer we project over 50% to finish Top 10 (56.6%) with Collin Morikawa next at 41.2%.

For Schauffele, an early-season injury setback sidelined him for two months and it was a tough return, finishing T40 and 72nd. however, he notched a T12 at the Valspar Championship and has had two weeks off to dial up his game and prepare.

That said, we've got Xander at just 2.1% to win, outside of our Top 10 projected finishers and we give him less than a 25% probability to finish in that Top 10 range.

LIV's in Town

The PGA-LIV drama won't go away anytime soon, with the supposed merger now looking as distant as it ever was, but at four events per year, they're all one (albeit competitive) family from Thursday to Sunday.

More than half of this year's LIV contingent - Bubba Watson, Charl Schwartzel, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smith, Tyrrell Hatton, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Bryson DeChambeau, Joaquin Niemann, Jon Rahm - is made up of former Masters champions.

Mickelson is the winningest of them with three titles, while Watson has two. Jon Rahm is the most recent from 2023.

Rahm is our highest-projected and entrenched in our Top 5 at 5.8% to win, our fourth-highest probability, and a full 2% higher than Justin Thomas at fifth overall.

Behind him, we've got DeChambeau (3.1%) as the only other LIV golfer to appear in our Top 10.

The least likely winner of the bunch? That's ol' Lefty, Phil Mickelson, at just 0.1%. Sorry Phil, but the DimersBOT isn't projecting Green Jacket No. 4.

We had some extra fun with this storyline and built a matchups parlay that pits LIV golfers vs. PGA golfers head-to-head over the tournament.

Amateur Hour

One of the more fun storylines each year is the crew of amateurs who get an invitation to compete at Augusta. An amateur has never won here, but the possibility of one getting in the chase is fun on its own.

Jose Luis Ballester, Evan Beck, Justin Hastings, Noah Kent and Hiroshi Tai will represent the non-pros this year. 

Ballester played in two PGA TOUR events this year finish as high as T17 at the Mexico Open, where Justin Hastings also finished Top 20 with a T13. The youngest of them, 20-yar old Noah Kent, missed the cut at the Houston Open.

All five get a sub-1% win probability, while Hastings is our most likely Top 20 finisher at 1.2%. Ballester is our most likely to make the cut, with a 21.8% probability.

Dimers' Expert Golf Picks and Predictions for 2025 PGA TOUR

As well as being your best source for PGA golf predictions, Dimers also has the latest golf news, golf predictions for every game, weekly golf rankings, and golf matchup H2H tool.

• PGA Predictions: Our data-backed predictions for every tournament, including The Masters and every major.
• Head-to-Head Predictor: Simulate any H2H tournament matchup between golfers
• Dimers' PGA Rankings: Our in-house approach to ranking the World's best golfers
• PGA Betting News: The latest promos, storylines and more around the PGA TOUR

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