The Masters is underway

The first surprise at Augusta is that the defending champion is not the betting favorite. Rory McIlroy arrived on Thursday, April 9, wearing the green jacket he won in 2025, but sportsbooks still opened Scottie Scheffler ahead of him for the 90th Masters. (espn.com) That tells you what this week looks like: a champion trying to do something rare on a course that usually resists repeats. The Athletic noted that since Tiger Woods won back-to-back in 2001 and 2002, only three defending Masters champions have finished better than 10th the next year. (nytimes.com) The tournament is running from Thursday, April 9, through Sunday, April 12, at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Golf.com’s schedule says this is the first major championship of the 2026 men’s season, which is why one week in April pulls in the entire sport’s attention. (golf.com) The field is only 91 players, which is tiny compared with most regular tour stops, and that makes every bad nine holes feel expensive. NBC Sports’ field ranking says those 91 players include past Masters winners, top professionals from multiple tours, and a few first-timers trying to solve Augusta on the hardest first try in golf. (nbcsports.com) Scheffler sits at the top of the market because Augusta has already been his place twice. ESPN listed him at +510 before the opening round, with Jon Rahm at +900, Bryson DeChambeau at +1050, and McIlroy at +1175. (espn.com) DeChambeau is the name drawing the loudest public betting action, which is not always the same thing as being the favorite. Fox News reported that bettors kept piling onto him early in the week, pushing his number shorter as sportsbooks took more tickets on him than almost anyone else near the top. (foxnews.com) McIlroy’s angle is different because he is playing against Augusta history as much as the field. Sky Sports reported that he has a chance to become the first player since Tiger Woods to win back-to-back Masters titles, which turns every round this week into a test of whether last year’s breakthrough changed him or just freed him. (skysports.com) The first-round pairings show how quickly the board can move on Thursday afternoon. PGA Tour groupings have Rahm playing with Chris Gotterup and Ludvig Åberg at 1:20 p.m. Eastern, while Scheffler goes at 1:44 p.m. Eastern with Robert MacIntyre and Gary Woodland. (pgatour.com) That late wave matters because Augusta can feel like two different courses in one day. Golf Channel’s Thursday guide says honorary starters Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tom Watson open the morning ceremony, and then the featured groups roll into a leaderboard that usually changes shape fast once the bigger names reach the back nine. (golfchannel.com) So the real story at the start is not just who tees off first. It is whether Scheffler plays like the course favorite, whether DeChambeau’s power turns into birdies instead of trouble, and whether McIlroy can defend a title that almost nobody at Augusta gets to keep for a second straight year. (espn.com) (nytimes.com)