The first major of the season, The Masters, commences at Augusta National Golf Club on Thursday, April 6. The Masters has the smallest field of the four major championships and, beyond the 94 players already qualified, only the winner of this week’s Shell Houston Open, if not already eligible, can be added to the list.
Augusta National is a course where previous form stands up remarkably well – Fuzzy Zoeller, in 1979, is the only modern-day player to win a Green Jacket at the first attempt – so Daniel Berger, who finished tied tenth on his debut last year, looks worthy of support at treble-figure odds this time around. Notwithstanding a missed cut on his most recent stroke play outing, in the Valspar Championship, earlier this month, the 23-year-old Floridian has proved admirably consistent in his first three seasons on the PGA Tour, registering 28 top-25 finishes. He ranks highly enough in driving, scrambling and putting to suggest that he can improve on last year’s eye-catching debut. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares against Masters’ favourites Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth in Texas this week, but Augusta could be the making of him.
Selection: Daniel Berger 1-point each-way (100/1 with Sky Bet)
