Masters favorites set

Masters favorites set as Augusta week opens Masters week opened with a familiar split at the top of the board: Scottie Scheffler as the betting favorite, and Rory McIlroy as the man everyone has to chase as the defending champion. The 2026 tournament begins Thursday, April 9, at Augusta National Golf Club, with McIlroy returning one year after winning the 2025 Masters and completing the career Grand Slam. (golfweek.usatoday.com) That creates an unusual picture for the year’s first major. Scheffler is the favorite because bettors still trust the steady formula that already produced two green jackets in the last four Masters, while McIlroy arrives with the title, the ceremony, and the spotlight that come with being the most recent champion. (cbssports.com) McIlroy’s status was on display before the first competitive shot. At Augusta National’s annual Champions Dinner on Tuesday, April 7, the Masters released the traditional group portrait with McIlroy front and center, flanked by Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley and two-time champion Ben Crenshaw. (golfweek.usatoday.com) That photo mattered because the Champions Dinner is one of the tournament’s most exclusive rituals. The defending Masters winner hosts past champions at the clubhouse, and this year that honor belonged to McIlroy for the first time after his 2025 victory. (golfweek.usatoday.com) The betting market still starts with Scheffler. Golfweek reported that Scheffler opened Masters week as the favorite, with Bryson DeChambeau and McIlroy close behind in one early odds snapshot, while other market reports cited Scheffler at the top with Jon Rahm, DeChambeau, McIlroy, and Xander Schauffele clustered behind him. (golfweek.usatoday.com) The case for Scheffler is simple: Augusta keeps rewarding the same kind of control he brings every year. CBS Sports noted that he is chasing a third Masters title in five years, and Golfweek highlighted that he has finished in the top 10 in four straight trips to Augusta, including two wins. (cbssports.com) McIlroy’s case looks different. He is not just trying to win another major; he is trying to become the first player since Tiger Woods to win the Masters in consecutive years, which turns a title defense into a piece of golf history. (cbssports.com) Behind those two, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau have become the most discussed challengers. CBS framed DeChambeau as a player hunting his first green jacket while Rahm tries for a second, and Golfweek’s betting coverage placed both firmly in the front group of contenders entering the week. (cbssports.com) DeChambeau is the most interesting split-screen candidate in the field. On one side, he has posted back-to-back top-six finishes at the Masters, proof that his power game can work on Augusta National’s slopes and second shots; on the other, some analysts remain wary of backing him all the way to a win. (picks-s1.cbssports.com) Schauffele sits in another lane: respected, but not quite in the first wave of public attention. CBS Sports’ Patrick McDonald picked Schauffele to win at 18-1, arguing that his ball-striking had started to look more like it did during his 2024 major-winning form even after a slow start to 2026. (cbssports.com) That is what makes this Masters feel crowded at the top without feeling random. Scheffler has the shortest odds, McIlroy has the title and ceremony, Rahm has recent major pedigree, DeChambeau has Augusta results that are getting harder to dismiss, and Schauffele has at least one prominent analyst willing to call his shot before Thursday morning. (cbssports.com) The tournament itself adds one more layer. This is the 90th Masters, and CBS noted that the field includes 91 players, which means the usual Augusta pressure now falls on a compact group of stars who all have a believable path to Sunday evening. (cbssports.com) So the week opens with two different kinds of favorite. Scheffler is the betting favorite, the name sportsbooks trust first, while McIlroy is the emotional and ceremonial favorite, the defending champion whose portrait is already hanging over the week before the first round even begins. (golfweek.usatoday.com)