RADIO
Joe Nicely's under-the-radar DraftKings, FanDuel PGA DFS picks for the 2024 Masters at Augusta National Golf Club. His Horse for the Course for daily fantasy golf based on course history.
Well...we've finally made it to the Masters. After an extremely sluggish start to the golfing year that's included multiple longshot winners and plenty of sleepy Sundays, the sport has picked up a bit of steam over the past month thanks to Scheffler's dominance in Florida and last week's dramatic closer at Valero.
Up-and-coming prodigy Akshay Bhatia held off a charging Denny McCarthy for the win at TPC San Antonio. Bhatia also punched his ticket to Augusta National. This is my favorite tournament of the year, so let's dig right into the 2024 Masters!
Horse For The Course is an article that highlights players in this week's field with elite course history and is part of our free PGA DFS content here at RotoBaller. For my favorite DFS plays of the week check out my Core Four article here at RotoBaller every Wednesday. It's part of our amazing PGA Premium package that includes an all-new PGA Research Station, Lineup Builder & Optimizer, and some of the best articles in the PGA DFS industry! You can sign up now using Promo Code: NICE for an extra discount at checkout!
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2024 Masters
Sometimes I feel as though I've used every superlative in the dictionary to describe the Masters over the years. Tradition. Excitement. Class. Mystique. They all apply to the tournament that's my favorite one of the year.
While the other three major championships are obviously huge events, there's just something about the tradition and mystique of the Masters that makes it different. The Masters is the most unique of the major championships in that it's played on the same golf course every year. As a result, we have tons of course history to evaluate for most players in the field...a statement that is music to our ears when it comes to this article! In fact, even if you aren't normally a "course history believer", I would strongly encourage you to take it into account this week, as I genuinely believe that course history at Augusta National is crucial to evaluating players on this particular DFS slate.
Jon Rahm will attempt to be just the fourth player in history to successfully defend a Masters title this week. The Spaniard comes in after a shocking offseason jump to LIV Golf, where he's yet to win this year, but has demonstrated strong form. He'll need to get every ounce out of his game this week, as he'll face a field full of the world's best golfers from both the PGA Tour and LIV.
You can also find out who the smart money is on by checking out Spencer Aguiar's PGA DFS: Vegas Report every week. And be sure to read all of our other top-notch weekly PGA DFS articles to help you win big! This week's Horse For The Course contains excerpts from my Masters Bible, which contains outlooks for every player in this year's field. You can find it free by clicking here.
The Course: Augusta National Golf Club
Par 72 - 7,555 Yards, Greens: Bentgrass, Designed By: Bobby Jones & Alister Mackenzie
The brainchild of the legendary Bobby Jones, in concert with Alister Mackenzie, Augusta National was built on a 365-acre property that had been Fruitland Nurseries. Jones imparted all his wisdom on the layout that would eventually become the most famous golf course in the world. The condition of the course is IMMACULATE, with not as much as a young azalea out of place.
Augusta National is a Par 72 that has now been stretched out to over 7,500 yards, thanks to some yardage that was added to holes No. 11 & No. 14, as well as a new tee box that added 35 yards to the famous 13th hole. The legendary layout tests every facet of a player's game.
Distance off the tee is a huge advantage at Augusta National, as it is crucial for players to take advantage of the four Par-5s. Precision on approach shots with your irons, creativity with your short game, and the possession of nerves of steel on the lightning-fast greens are also needed, as is the perfect combination of aggression and patience. Piece of cake, right?
Recent Masters Winners
- 2023: Jon Rahm (-12)
- 2022: Scottie Scheffler (-10)
- 2021: Hideki Matsuyama (-10)
- 2020: Dustin Johnson (-20)
- 2019: Tiger Woods (-13)
The Horse
Jordan Spieth
Spieth is a course horse on a handful of circuit stops, with the Masters serving as his Churchill Downs. A missed cut in 2022 shows that he's not completely infallible here, though that failure was sandwiched between top-four finishes in '21 &'23.
The Texan has displayed a love of Augusta National from the get go, posting a runner-up in his debut and a win in his second Masters start. He's now logged a win and five additional top-five finishes in 10 Masters starts. Form is never a reason to count him out of this event, and while he hasn't been especially good in 2024, he's certainly not been bad enough to be eliminated from your DFS player pool.
It's also encouraging that he's coming in off his best statistical ball-striking performance of the year in last week's Valero Texas Open. His brand of golf can often be dismissed by the number crunchers, but Spieth ranks fourth among this week's entrants in strokes gained at Augusta National (+2.81).
The Ponies
Scottie Scheffler
It's tricky business to oversimplify golf, but with Scheffler, things are pretty black and white: if he's just decent with the putter -- as he's been in March -- he's going to have a very strong chance of winning every time he tees it up.
That's especially the case at Augusta National, a layout where he slipped on a green jacket in 2022 and has never finished worse than T19 in four Masters starts. Scheffler has all the tools - length, shot-making, creativity around the greens - needed to succeed on this golf course.
While the Masters DFS slate is always filled with endless nuances, in many ways, lineup decisions this year will revolve around what you're doing with the World's top-ranked player.
Will Zalatoris
The leader in true strokes gained at the Masters in this year's field is Will Zalatoris. After earning an electric solo second in his 2021 Masters debut, the ball-striking phenom followed with a T6 in 2022. Zalatoris was forced to withdraw from last year's edition with a back injury that sidelined him for virtually the entire year.
Willie Z has fought his way back in 2024, enduring several knock-the-rust-off outings before displaying vintage form at Riviera (T2) & Bay Hill (T4). Any magic gained by a switch to a broomstick-style putter appears to have worn off, however, as he put forth the worst putting performance of his career (-7.0 SG: Putting) -- which is really saying something -- in his most recent start at the Houston Open. Despite the legitimate concerns that come with his putting, his ball-striking superiority is perfectly suited for Augusta National.
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Tony Finau
Finau recently brought some life to what had been an otherwise sleepy 2024 with a runner-up effort in Houston. It marked just his second top-10 of the year. Though the results haven't shown it, he's actually been under-the-radar good from T2G this year while fighting a mostly ice-cold putter. He drove the ball poorly at the tail end of the Florida Swing before putting forth his best statistical week of the year OTT in Houston.
Big Tony's Masters CV is rock solid. He's never missed a cut at Augusta National and half of six career Masters starts have resulted in top-10 finishes. He's a terrific option for those playing single-entry events on this slate thanks to his combination of DFS floor and ceiling.
Patrick Reed
I still remember the deafening silence when he won the green jacket in 2018. Love him or hate him, Reed is undeniably a gamer, especially at Augusta National.
He's recorded three top-10s since winning this event, including a from-out-of-left-field T4 in last year's edition when the doubt surrounding the ability of LIV golfers to cross over was at its peak. Speaking of LIV, Reed has been largely quiet on that circuit in 2024, though he did show some fight at Doral last week by logging a T9 at LIV Miami. Rostering him is simply a bet on his Masters track record, which isn't a horrible line to take in an event where course history is at its most predictive.
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