The Masters specials and prop bets: Ben Coley's best bets from side markets

Golf betting tips: The Masters specials

3pts Charl Schwartzel to be the top South African at 12/5 (bet365)

2pts Jacob Bridgeman to be the top debutant at 13/2 (Unibet, 6/1 BetVictor)

1pt Ben Griffin to be the top debutant at 11/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook | Free bets

Sky Bet's @SportingLife specials

14/1 - Fleetwood, Schauffele, MacIntyre and Matsuyama all top 20 (including ties)

25/1 - Schwartzel top SA, Johnson top senior, Bridgeman or Griffin top debutant (no ties)

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Top South African

There's no denying that Casey Jarvis is the form pick among three South African players, but this is just his second major appearance and first since the 2024 US Open, which saw him shoot rounds of 75-78 to finish 125th in a field of 160.

Clearly, the player whose form figures read 1-1-2-13 has gone up more than one level in the interim, but he shot 75-76 over the weekend of the Hero Indian Open last time out and I can't help but feel he's the type to run up some big numbers here. Jarvis is a creative shot-maker who in time could really take to Augusta, but he's also ultra-aggressive, and his chipping is his one major weakness.

With all of that in mind he looks there to be taken on and I feel the experience of 2011 champion CHARL SCHWARTZEL should entitle him to be priced not only as the danger, but perhaps even as the favourite. At bigger than 2/1 in a three-horse race, he's excellent value having done enough on the LIV Golf circuit this year to suggest his game is in decent shape.

Schwartzel started well when 24th on home soil last time and was 21st in Singapore before that, with 17th in Australia, 30th in Riyadh and 31st in Hong Kong all solid if unspectacular performances. Two of them have seen him produce genuinely excellent approach play, his short-game has been good for the most part, and if anything he's just struggled off the tee which may not be be such an issue here.

Despite being some way below the levels he reached when winning this 15 years ago, he's still ranked about 60 places higher than Aldrich Potgieter by DataGolf and the latter has only shown up in the two most bomber-friendly tournaments held all year on the PGA Tour. That the latest of them came last time out means he's been put in at an artificially short price on what's his second Masters start (MC as an amateur).

Potgieter still lacks the subtlety required for this in my eyes and Schwartzel could well win by making the cut. He's done that five times in his last six Masters appearances and is certainly shorter than 9/4 to do so again, while he could of course win this market even if he misses it.

Seventh for greens hit on the LIV Golf circuit is another hint that he's playing fine, so Schwartzel rates a strong fancy at the prices: 12/5 in a place, 9/4 generally.

Top debutant

Coming into the Masters, I was keen to side with JACOB BRIDGEMAN in the top debutant market, knowing that Chris Gotterup would be installed as favourite. Bridgeman is rated higher by DataGolf and he won the best Masters trial the PGA Tour has, the Genesis Invitational at Riviera, while unlike Gotterup he hasn't had a single off-week all year.

I will admit that enthusiasm was tempered when I looked at the list of first-time Masters participants, which appears stronger than it was in 2025. Removing the amateurs and the likely outclassed Naoyuki Kataoka, we're left with 15 potential winners and among them are some players I really like for the future, such as Johnny Keefer, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, and Tom McKibbin.

Even the previously out-of-sorts Kristoffer Reitan found form in Texas last week, the putting woes of Sam Stevens and Michael Brennan look less severe than they did a month ago and the likes of Andrew Novak and Harry Hall were fringe Ryder Cup contenders last year. Marco Penge became a legitimate one and after a turbulent start to life in the USA, he's also found form lately.

All of this considered, Bridgeman remains overpriced and has to be a bet at 5/1 and bigger. He's the best of this bunch right now in my eyes and he is long enough for Augusta National, where improvements to his approach play set him up nicely. He's been fifth in The Players to give us another genuinely high-class form line and his worst finish anywhere, 18th, would give him a squeak in this market.

I like Penge, but Bridgeman is more than 50 places higher in DataGolf's rankings, Penge behind even 14/1 shot Sam Stevens, and the Englishman looks short at 15/2. So does Gotterup at just 7/2 in places and Bridgeman, born and raised just a couple of hours north of Augusta, can prove the best of a good bunch at what looks a really generous price.

With several of those mentioned simply too short in the betting, the other one I want to have on-side is BEN GRIFFIN. This is a Ryder Cup player who was 10th on his US Open debut last year having been eighth a month earlier in the PGA Championship. Two major top-10s in his last two stateside appearances is a pretty handy class and experience edge to bring into your first Masters.

And while he'd cooled to begin the year, I'm taken with the fact he produced his best approach play of the season when staying on well for 28th in Houston, a golf course set up for bombers. Augusta is much more about the second shot onwards and that's where he so often excelled last year, so with his irons getting better by the tournament over his last four starts, he's found something at the right time.

Like Bridgeman, this isn't far off a home game as he now lives in Georgia, and he performed with credit in the TOUR Championship on his last visit. Griffin is an 11/1 chance and that makes for 7/2 that either player proves the pick of the rookies if you split stakes equally, but I'll weight mine slightly more in favour of Bridgeman, who can continue to operate at a very high level.

Top senior

No prizes for originality here but ZACH JOHNSON should be the best of six seniors now that both Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are absent from the Masters.

Johnson turned 50 at the end of February and made an immediate impression on the Champions Tour, winning his first event. Since then he's been third and second and as he'd made both cuts on the PGA Tour in January, this sort of dominance ought to come as no surprise.

When we go through the others, it's hard to build a case for any of them. Angel Cabrera has been 35th and 57th in the two Champions Tour events he and Johnson have both played, while Fred Couples' results with Johnson in the field read 32nd and 40th.

Johnson has an active winning streak of seven versus Cabrera and 10 versus Couples and I see no reason for either to end.

He's beaten Vijay Singh 10 times in 12 albeit not in the 2024 Masters, where the Fijian performed with credit to make the cut. However, Singh missed last year's edition and while he did edge Johnson in the Sony Open back in January, the latter was eight shots too good in the more recent Hoag Classic.

With Mike Weir beaten by a combined 18 shots across two Champions Tour starts and Jose Maria Olazabal unlikely to be any danger at all, the way looks clear for Johnson to justify favouritism. He was eighth in last year's Masters don't forget and to win this market under what ought to be suitable conditions won't require anything like that level.

The tricky part is whether you want to get stuck into an 11/10 shot and some bookmakers won't allow you to perm top category bets, frustratingly.

Other markets of interest

I'm pretty keen on JON RAHM over Bryson DeChambeau and one way to pit them against each other is in the top LIV Golf market offered by most firms. Rahm is a top-price 7/4 chance but there is a bit of a nagging worry that course specialist Cameron Smith could scupper things, as could Tyrrell Hatton if returning to his best after a troubling period.

I think Carlos Ortiz might go quite well, too, so can't consider this a straight match – and as I can't find a 72-hole match bet between Rahm and DeChambeau, there's no bet to be had.

It's a similar story with LUDVIG ABERG who would rate a strong fancy to beat Viktor Hovland but is priced accordingly in a top Scandinavian market which features three very talented young Danish players and another from Norway, any of whom could make us sweat.

If only Hovland were Swedish, I'd have been very happy playing Aberg against him and Alex Noren, the latter with an awful record at Augusta. Unfortunately we're left with Aberg at 7/5 in an eight-runner race and to be honest, he's better value at 1/3 to beat Noren alone which he really should do without any alarm.

Again, we come back to the issue of not being able to freely perm selections across various markets but for those betting with the firms that do, he's one favourite I struggle to see losing.

Finally, the fact you can back SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER at 16/5 to be the top American when back in January he was no bigger to win the tournament has to merit a second look.

As I wrote in my outright preview, he's drifted to tempting prices and as the standout Augusta player in the field could make us all look very silly for questioning the slightest of downturns in form when his second baby was due.

Throw in Collin Morikawa's fitness concerns, which he did nothing to downplay on Monday, Jordan Spieth's putting display in Texas, Brooks Koepka's backwards step in Houston, Akshay Bhatia's missed cut in India and my overriding belief that DeChambeau will be caught out again at some stage, and 3/1-plus is sorely tempting.

Of course, I'm also sweet on XANDER SCHAUFFELE so it's a question of whether to dutch them at 7/4, knowing that Cameron Young, Russell Henley, Patrick Reed, Patrick Cantlay and Justin Thomas are all lurking with Masters top-10s to their names. On balance, at the beginning of a long week, it's one we can go without.

Posted at 14:35 BST on 07/04/26

More Masters content

• Ben Coley's outright betting preview
• The Masters: Player-by-player guide
• Stats and in-play betting guide
• Augusta National: Hole-by-hole
• Ben Coley's tipping record

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