Masters Tournament 2023: Expert observations and betting opportunities entering Round 2

Live golf betting opportunities heading into Round 2 of the Masters

After a riveting opening round at the Masters, our experts look for live golf betting opportunities before Round 2 tees off on Friday, April 7th. We have been diving into the action at Augusta for weeks now, as we put together our 2023 Masters Betting Guide and also put out all sorts of different betting previews for the event. But we know things can change drastically on a day-to-day basis, so we're going to be reporting back with some bets we're looking at between rounds! 

MORE: Check out what our experts are betting with our Pro Picks page!

These are the plays our golf experts are looking at after Round 1 of the Masters, with odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook: 

Matt Brown - Host, The Handle

A few thoughts:

1) The most impressive thing about Viktor Hovland's 7-under first round isn't the scoring. He always scores. It was the saves. Anyone who has ever bet Hovland knows he throws in 2-3 absolutely terrible holes where he gives back a lot of the work he's done throughout the day. He had that opportunity three times today, and not only did he not blow up...he saved par each time.

2) I know it's not always the easiest thing to do considering we're all busy, but live betting golf can be so great sometimes. I was able to jump on Jon Rahm at 20/1 after he played one hole (double bogey). Yes, the algorithms gave me over double his pre-tourney price with 71 holes to play. If you're paying attention, opportunities do pop up. 

3) I hate to break it to you, but Scottie Scheffler is likely to ruin your outright ticket. Scottie putted like absolute garbage (only player in the top-25 golfers on the leaderboard that lost more than 0.6 strokes putting...he lost 3.5), and he still ended the day T6 at 4-under par. His irons were dialed, the short game was sharp and he was solid off the tee. If his putting even comes back to average, he's going to be threatening to repeat come Sunday. 

Data Golf Top 10 Win Percentages: 

• Rahm: 24.9%

• Scheffler: 15.7%

• Hovland: 9.2%

• Day: 6.4%

• Young: 5.9%

• Koepka: 5.7% 

• Schauffele: 3.5%

• Finau: 3.2% 

• Burns: 3%

• Spieth/McIllroy: 2.6%

Notable Round 1 Stats: 

Kelley Bydlon - Producer, A Numbers Game & Co-host of the Long Shots VSiN golf podcast 

An amazing first round at the Masters, full of great shot after great shot by the best players in the world, and we are left with one hell of a leaderboard heading into Round 2. Brooks Koepka is leading the way for the LIV Golf contingent by capturing a share of the lead with Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland. And just behind those three is a crop of world-class players. 

Scoring conditions were easier than expected in Round 1 and should get tougher on Friday, especially in the afternoon when bad weather is expected. There is one second-round matchup I’ll be betting: Scottie Scheffler -120 > Rory McIlroy. 

Scheffler was second in the field tee-to-green in Round 1, while Rory struggled to really get going. And it will be tough for Scheffler to have a much worse putting day than he did in the first round. 

Matt Youmans, host of VSiN Tonight

The weather, specifically rain and gusting winds, will be a wild-card factor Friday and Saturday. I’m in pretty good position with several pre-tournament futures — Cameron Young (50/1), Sam Burns (55), Tony Finau (31), Collin Morikawa (33), Justin Rose (87), Jordan Spieth (21) and Justin Thomas (27) are all at -2 or better after the first round — but Shane Lowry was one player I considered and never pulled the trigger in the 80/1 range. Lowry plays some of his best golf in bad weather and is especially strong in the wind. I’ll make two half-unit plays on Lowry: 42/1 to win at Circa and +210 to finish Top 10 at DraftKings.

A major non-Nevada sportsbook posted a prop that’s also worth a play. The tournament’s winning score is offered at -15 or better and -14 or worse. The conditions were ideal for low scores, but it’s about to get much tougher. I’ll play the winning score -14 or worse (-105). There is a three-way tie at 7-under par going into Friday, and I expect the winning score to be either -11 or -12. Scottie Scheffler won last year’s Masters at -10.

Wes Reynolds, host of VSiN Tonight

Players took advantage of the easiest conditions that they will see all week at Augusta. 36 players shot in red figures, but scoring should get more difficult with the incoming weather.

If looking for an in-play future, it has not proven to be prudent to go all that far down the board when you consider the following:

▪️ 23 of last 24 Masters winners were in top 15 at the end of first round

▪️ 16 of the last 17 winners were at/within 4 shots of the lead after the first round

That would make -3 the cutoff score.

One potential in-play target at 3-under par is Jordan Spieth (currently 16/1 at DraftKings). I have a 21/1 pre-tournament future bet on him. Spieth hit two balls in the water on the back nine. Had Spieth stayed dry, he could have been 5 or 6-under par.

OWGR No. 1, defending Masters champion, and pre-tournament favorite Scottie Scheffler is currently +450 in-play. A better way to bet Scheffler for the 2nd round could be in a 3-ball matchup at -150 (Boyd Sports/Fan Duel) over his playing partners Max Homa and U.S. Amateur Champion Sam Bennett. Scheffler is currently T-6 at -4 and three strokes back of the leaders, which is all the more remarkable considering he ranked 85th out of 86 players for Strokes Gained: Putting having lost -3.50 strokes to the field. However, he was rated 2nd on Thursday for Strokes Gained: Tee To Green just .10 strokes behind co-leader Jon Rahm. Expect some positive putting regression for Scheffler.

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