10-1; +0.91pts Pre-tournament plays: BACK 1pt Rickie Fowler 23 11th Anyone with finishes of 4th-1st-16th-12th-3rd in his last five starts deserves consideration, and that 3rd place finish should have been so much better. Seven Tour wins and a top-10 World Ranking suggests that he ranks alongside Matsuyama as the best current player without a Major and both are very strong contenders this week, though Fowler gets the nod as the better putter. He was in the midst of the final round battle in 2014, getting to within a shot of the lead before finishing 5th behind Bubba Watson. He is a better player and in much better form now, so I'd price him a little lower than this. LAY 20pts liability Justin Thomas 44 22nd Marc Leishman 60 43rd Lee Westwood 85 18th Brooks Koepka 100 11th Adam Hadwin 100 26th Thomas won the first two events of 2017, but his form has been poor since January - a great prospect, but still to show that he can step up to the level where he can be competitive in Majors Leishman won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and is a good putter, but three missed cuts in four visits to Augusta National suggest that he doesn't warrant these odds in a Major I'd love Westwood and Garcia to win a Major before the end of their careers, but they look destined to always fall short just as Monty did - has a great record here over the last seven years, but looking less and less competitive with each season Koepka has the power and the putting skill to play well here, but he has only made one cut this year while his other paydays have come via WGC events without a cut Hadwin is certainly a player in form and a good putter, but at the start of the season it was unthinkable that his odds would be as short as this for his Masters debut - despite his form, I'd still price him a little higher as a Masters rookie Pre-rd3 plays: LAY 20pts liability Fred Couples 110 18th Jimmy Walker 470 18th Bill Haas 470 36th It's a great story that Couples is in contention this week, but being three shots behind the four leaders means that he will need to be at the peak of his game over the weekend to keep pace - I can't see that happening for the whole 36 holes and he is justifiably a much higher price than those around him on the leaderboard Over the last sixty years, no players has won this event when more than six shots off the pace after 36 holes. That means there is a very good reason to oppose Walker and Haas who are seven shots off the pace and even moreso when it is remembered that there isn't a single runaway leader, but four joint leaders. These really should be free plays given the nature of this event. Pre-rd4 plays: LAY 20pts liability Thomas Pieters 130 4th Matt Kuchar 450 4th Since 1990 no player has won the Green Jacket when starting the final round outside the top-5, so I can't see it being Pieters who struggled under the pressure of leading after rd2 and fell back to 9th. Given that the top-4 in the market are Rose, Garcia, Spieth and Fowler, this is a very strong top of the leaderboard and I would be very surprised if the winner didn't come from these four Kuchar is a shot further back in 11th place and while this represents a better week than expected given his recent form. he doesn't look capable of shooting the 64 needed to give himself a chance of victory today.
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