Tiger Woods US Masters Golf Betting Specials

Tipsterblog Staff - 7 Apr 2010

There are plenty of Masters special bets surrounding the world No.1 that catch the eye.

There is the small matter of a 40-runner handicap at Aintree coming up fast, but Augusta, Georgia, stages it's own conundrum this week and the biggest puzzle is concerning the performance of the tournament favourite - Mr T.Woods.

The world No.1 has not played competitively since winning the the JBWere Masters in Australia in November, which must seem like a lifetime ago for him, and that explains why the great man is available to back at 5/1 (Ladbrokes, Betfred), more than double what he was 12 months ago.

Of course, he's no stranger to successful comebacks having overcome even longer absences due to injury and many punters, no doubt swayed by his postive press conference on Monday, have been more than willing to trust their hard-earned on him pulling off an implausible victory with both Coral (9/2 from 5/1) and Skybet (4/1 from 5/1, but then back out to 9/2) having to take evasive action.

However, there were conflicting signs that punters want to be with Tiger as Skybet also reported money for him to shoot 72 or more in the opening round at 5/6 - he's now 11/10 to shoot 73 or more, with 72 or less at 4/6. Considering he's struggled on day one before - in 15 starts at Augusta, he's posted a sub-72 score just five times and has never broken 70 in the first round - that 11/10 is still fair value, even without factoring in his current mindset.

Paddy Power are betting on how many first-round birdies he scores with between nought and three birdies favourite at 11/8 (it's 13/10 for 4 or 5 and 11/4 he makes 6 or more), which also looks fair value considering that he's managed more than three birdies just once in his last seven first rounds at Augusta.

Coral are betting on Tiger's finishing position and their 11/4 that he ends up 21st or worse is sure to prove more popular than their 11/10 he makes the top five given that he's bound to be rusty on his reappearance - it's 3/1 he finishes 6th to 10th and 7/1 for 11th to 20th. He's 1/8 to make the cut and 9/2 to miss it with the same firm.

Ladbrokes clearly don't fancy the world No.1 at all this week. Not only are they joint top price on him to win at 5/1 but they will also pay your bet as a winner if you back another player in the field and he finishes runner-up to Tiger - applies to win bets only and not the win part of each-way bets.

Somehow, I can't seem them paying out twice but as Tiger has shown in the past, just about anything is possible. And all it needs is for Woods to get within a couple of the lead on the opening day and his odds will shorten to their normal prohibitive level, making us wish we'd lumped on at 5/1.

All will be revealed on Thursday - don't miss it!




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