The Masters Longshots 2026

Looking back at last year’s final Masters leaderboard, three of the top five were in the 80/1-125/1 bracket and the one thing they each had in common was a strong record at Augusta National.

Justin Rose, who was 100/1 in places pre-event 12 months ago, produced a magical Sunday performance to push Rory McIlroy right to the very end; Patrick Reed, who I put up in this column at 80/1, played well throughout but couldn’t quite make the kind of run that Rose did when push came to shove on the final day. The other player in that price bracket was Sungjae Im who finished in a tie for 5^th, and I’m happy to pay to see if he can do the same or better again this year.

Rose had already finished runner-up here twice before that effort and Reed was the winner in 2018 so both had strong credentials, and in Sungjae we have another player with an impressive record around these parts. 2^nd on debut at the post-Covid November Masters in 2020 could have been seen as a one-off given the vagaries of that year’s renewal and a 20-under winning total. 8^th in 2022, 16^th in 2023 and 5^th last year tells a different story though and this is by far Im’s best Major Championship in terms of career results to date.

A wrist injury kept the 28 year-old out of action for the first couple of months of 2026 and he missed the cut at Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass on his return to action. 4^th at the Valspar Championship saw Im lead into the final day though before he dropped away on the final day, however that effort will have got the confidence and competitive juices flowing once again. After a week off following a low-key effort to follow at the Houston Open, perhaps we’ll see another big effort here from the South Korean.

Having qualified for this year’s Masters through a late surge into the OWGR top-50 in time for the final cut-off, Daniel Berger was one of a number of players entered into last week’s Valero Texas Open who chose instead to withdraw before the event started and focus his efforts on this week’s main event.

Whether that was a wise decision or not remains to be seen, however he’s gone from a quietly fancied player in last week’s field prior to his withdrawal to what’s effectively an also-ran at Augusta based on his Monday price, however I beg to differ.

Ending the year at 61^st in the world rankings meant a good start to 2026 was required if Daniel, who celebrates his 33^rd birthday on Tuesday of tournament week, was going to be teeing it up at Augusta for a 7^th time in his career. A fast-finishing 6^th at the Sony Open was positive, however the real breakthrough came at Bay Hill where he came within a play-off of celebrating a fifth PGA Tour title, losing out to Akshay Bhatia on the first extra hole.

The disappointment of that defeat may have spilled into his Players Championship performance where he plodded along for a tie for 66^th, however after taking a break he should be ready and raring to go once again this week in my view.

The Florida native’s record in Georgia overall is strong with best finishes of 2^nd at the RSM Classic in 2024 and 8^th at East Lake three years prior to that. 10^th here at Augusta on debut back in 2016 is Berger’s best result around these parts – the first of four career top-10 finishes at the Major Championships – and having made the weekend at all four Majors last year perhaps he can add another strong finish to his CV here this week.

Finally, one exercise I like to do as part of my preparatory work each week is to take a look at current world rankings and see if there’s any disparity between higher-ranked players and their odds – you can take a look for yourself with this week’s predictor model as a starting point.

There are those who don’t give the OWGR much credence, although that stance may soften for some now that LIV players are eligible for ranking points, however for the purpose of this week’s exercise it highlighted Ben Griffin to me as an outlier and I’m backing him accordingly.

3 PGA Tour wins in 2025 saw the 29 year-old leap as high as 8^th in the rankings to end the year, a position which is hard to argue with given the golf he’d been playing which ultimately saw him earn a place on the USA’s Ryder Cup team. 2026 hasn’t been anything like as impressive thus far with a single top-20 finish to his name in 9 starts, however that’s why we’re getting a premium on his price this week and there was just enough of a hint of form on his last start for me to take a chance on him here.

The St Simon’s Island resident will be making his Masters debut this week so recent history is against him wearing the Green Jacket come Sunday evening, however a top-8 finish would be just fine for the purpose of this bet. He’s had chances to play on the hallowed turf over the years alongside Augusta National members he knows, however he vowed not to play the course even in practice until he qualified, a promise that he’s recently made good on.

28^th in Houston on his last start arrested a run of three successive missed cuts, and with two top-10 finishes from his last three starts in Georgia, I think the 29 could impress on his Masters debut this week.