Masters: tee times and favorites

The first shot that counts at the 2026 Masters comes early Thursday, but the biggest question is not the alarm clock. It is whether Augusta National turns into the kind of dry, fast course that lets one hot player run away from the field by the weekend. (cbssports.com) (accuweather.com) Round 1 begins Thursday, April 9, with ceremonial tee shots at 7:25 a.m. Eastern Time and the first competitive pairing at 7:40 a.m. Eastern Time at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. The opening group is John Keefer and Haotong Li, which starts the 90th edition of the tournament before the marquee names arrive later in the morning and afternoon. (cbssports.com) (pgatour.com) The headliner in the betting market is Scottie Scheffler at +500, which means a $100 wager would return $500 in profit if he wins. CBS Sports listed Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau next at +1000, putting Scheffler clearly ahead of the rest of the board before a ball is struck in the first round. (cbssports.com) Scheffler’s position at the top makes sense because he is the world No. 1 and draws a late Thursday start at 1:44 p.m. Eastern Time with Robert MacIntyre and Gary Woodland. That tee time puts him on the warmer side of the draw if afternoon temperatures keep climbing through the day. (cbssports.com) (accuweather.com) Rahm goes off at 1:08 p.m. Eastern Time with Chris Gotterup and Ludvig Aberg, while DeChambeau starts much earlier at 10:07 a.m. Eastern Time with Matt Fitzpatrick and Xander Schauffele. Those pairings matter at Augusta because the course can change personality over a single day as greens dry out and temperatures rise. (cbssports.com) (sportingnews.com) Defending champion Rory McIlroy is not the betting favorite, but he is one of the central stories because he is trying to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002 to win back-to-back Masters titles. McIlroy begins at 10:31 a.m. Eastern Time with Cameron Young and amateur Mason Howell. (cbssports.com) (pgatour.com) Augusta is built to reward nerve as much as precision, and dry weather changes the test. When fairways firm up, drives can run farther, but approach shots also get harder to stop, which turns the course into something closer to landing a ball on a driveway than on a dartboard. (golfweek.usatoday.com) That is why early forecasts are so important this year. AccuWeather said the tournament is on track to be the first totally dry Masters since 2011, with highs in the 70s on Thursday and Friday before mid-80s temperatures arrive on Saturday and Sunday. (accuweather.com) CBS Sports’ model projects a winning score around 273, or 15 under par, which points to birdies still being available even if the course gets crustier by the weekend. The combination sounds contradictory until you remember Augusta’s basic trade: players who attack the right pins can make four in a hurry, and players who miss in the wrong spot can make six just as fast. (cbssports.com) The featured groups show how the tournament is likely to be consumed on Thursday. DeChambeau, Fitzpatrick and Schauffele form one of the strongest morning trios at 10:07 a.m., while Rahm, Gotterup and Aberg give the afternoon wave a power group at 1:08 p.m., and Scheffler closes near the end of the draw at 1:44 p.m. (sportingnews.com) (cbssports.com) This year’s field also arrives with two famous absences. Sporting News reported that neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson is in the tournament, which makes the generational handoff feel even more complete as Scheffler, McIlroy, Rahm and DeChambeau take over the center of the stage. (sportingnews.com) So the cleanest way to read Thursday is this: the first tee time is 7:40 a.m., the favorite is Scheffler at +500, and the course may get faster and more severe with each warm, dry hour. If that forecast holds, the Masters could start like a spring postcard and finish like a pressure test for whoever still thinks they can fire at flags on Sunday. (cbssports.com) ([cbssports.com](https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/2026-m