US Masters 2026: Dave Tindall's each-way picks from 18/1 to 50/1

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Introduction to the US Masters

After last year's Masters for the ages, Rory McIlroy will somehow attempt to follow up his epic 2025 victory when he returns to the hallowed grounds of Augusta National this week.

The Northern Irishman's dramatic win is well told in a new Amazon documentary which reveals just how many demons he carried here before somehow getting over the line after a playoff with Justin Rose.

With the last four Masters winners now reading McIlroy, Scheffler, Rahm, Scheffler, the idea that the cream rises to the top at Augusta really has been franked in recent editions.

Such is the familiarity of spectacular Augusta National, regular Masters watchers can picture and talk you through every hole on the course.

The iconic par 72 now measures a lengthy at 7,555 yards but plays even longer given that the grass is mown towards the tee, stopping excess roll unless, of course, tee-shots catch one of Augusta's undulating downhill fairways (the 10th for example) that fling the ball way down.

Strokes Gained Approach or old-fashioned Greens In Regulation count for plenty and back up the idea that this is a second-shot course but some magic in the wrists is key too with Around The Green and Scrambling way more important than at a standard PGA Tour course.

Feel and short game separate so many in the field and handling the super-quick Bentgrass greens is a huge challenge.

Unfortunately for Rory, defending champions have a poor record and no-one has defended since Tiger Woods in 2002.

There are plenty of other familiar patterns that reoccur here and I've discussed a plethora of them in my annual 10-year-trends preview.

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Bet 1: Cameron Young @ 18/119.00

The top four in the betting are all Major winners and three of those have Green Jackets.

That would be 11/26.50 Scottie Scheffler, 9/110.00 Jon Rahm, 10/111.00 Bryson DeChambeau and 11/112.00 Rory McIlroy.

There's every chance one of that elite quartet triumphs on Sunday and, if picking, I'd side with Rahm.

He came out top of my trends and I don't see him as a one-time Masters winner.

But this is an each-way preview and all are too short. I'm happy to have Rahm on board already at 13.525/2 on the Exchange.

No.2 on the trends was Cameron Young and although I backed him in that preview I just can't ignore the bearded New Yorker in this one too even though he's shortened up a little.

From a trends perspective, he ticks just about every box: good age, way up in the world rankings, a winner this year, has the right stats for Augusta, is in great form and has also flexed his muscles in past/recent Majors.

I actually tipped him at 80s for the US Open last year when he finished tied fourth so it's quite the price cut.

But it's understandable. Since then he's gone from someone without a PGA Tour victory to a two-time winner, who also just happened to be joint-top USA scorer on his Ryder Cup debut last September.

Young got the monkey off his back with a dominant six-shot success at the Wyndham Championship and then took it to a whole new level by winning last month's Players Championship after showing his mettle down the stretch.

It certainly bodes well that the last two Masters winners - McIlroy and Scheffler - both came to Augusta having just slid open the trophy cabinet to add the silverware from Sawgrass.   

The Ryder Cup and Players show that Young has always been cut out for the biggest events and he showed that very early in his Majors career.

In 2022, the first year he played all four, Young was tied third at the US PGA and runner-up in the Open at St Andrews.

Overall, he has a second, a third, a fourth and three other top 10s in the last 15 Majors and two of those were top 10s at Augusta: tied seventh in 2023 and tied ninth in 2024.

Asked at the 2024 Masters while he felt so comfortable in the Majors, Young said: "I don't really know. I am really comfortable. I think I mentioned a couple days ago, I really didn't have any first-tee nerves, and I don't know, I think the more I'm out here, the more I see these golf courses, I think they just generally suit my game quite well.

"I've obviously proven to myself that I can compete and contend in them. I have no reason, I think, not to continue to do that."

Specifically for Augusta, he has the desired high ball flight (32nd in Apex Height) while in his four Masters he's shown he has all the required skillsets.

One notable improvement this season has been his Around The Green stats. He was outside the top 100 in both 2024 and 2025 but now he's 72nd.

Add that to 4th Off The Tee, 10th Tee To Green, 23rd Approach and 42nd for Putting as well as other strong Augusta pointers such as 28th for Par 4 Birdie or Better and 11th for Bogey Avoidance and the number of boxes being ticked really starts to stack up.

Young is 2nd on the Money List this season and after his Players Championship win (preceded by third at Bay Hill and seventh at Riviera), we know he has the class, skill and temperament to win a Green Jacket.

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Bet 2: Tommy Fleetwood @ 20/121.00

One slight concern for Young is that he hasn't played in a while after resting up since his Players Championship win.

That same lack of recent activity applies to Scheffler, McIlroy and plenty of others.

On the flipside, perhaps being under the gun at last week's Texas Open isn't ideal either given the mental test of trying to survive all four days at Augusta. That would go against Robert MacIntyre (T2) and Ludvig Aberg (T5), who felt the heat of battle for a long time at TPC San Antonio.

So perhaps the sweet spot in all of this is someone who played recently but managed a backdoor top 10 after not really challenging. 

Such a player exists and it just happens to be Tommy Fleetwood.

The Englishman finished 10th in Texas after moving up eighth spots in the final round via a 69. He finished six back from winner J.J. Spaun.

Fleetwood, without hitting the headlines, has now reeled off four top 10s in his last five starts: fourth at Pebble, seventh at Riviera, eighth at Sawgrass and Sunday's 10th in Texas.

In his last two events - Players and Texas Open - he was in the top 10 for both SG: Off The Tee, Approach and Tee To Green. 

At Sawgrass Fleetwood was 10th Around The Green while in Texas he led the Scrambling stats.

The only slight disappointment is the putter but we've seen down the years that the super-slick Bermuda greens can be a great leveller so prowess with the flatstick isn't everything. Solid rather than spectacular will do.

Fleetwood has made his last eight cuts at Augusta and two years ago he was third. He added 21st last year and he's shot in the 60s in three of his last five laps of the course which is impressive.

Last year he said: "I love playing here. I feel like I've played well here in the past. Last year (2024) was my best finish by a long way, but I feel like I've had some years where I've been close to getting in contention or finishing top 10s and haven't quite done it.

"But I've been on the edge, so last year was really good. I do love the challenge of this golf course. I think being able to come back to it every year, there's a lot of known things, if you like. The course always throws plenty up that you've never experienced before. But I think experience does play a factor here."

This will be his 10th Masters and it feels the perfect time for Fleetwood to really throw down a huge challenge.

On his last trip to Georgia, the 35-year-old walked off with The Tour Championship, securing himself a huge financial jackpot but, perhaps even more importantly, finally getting a first win on American soil.

He returned to the United States soon after to be the leading scorer (four points) in Europe's Ryder Cup triumph at Bethpage Black.

His official status right now is 'bubbling', both in terms of capturing a first Major and getting a win this season. 

A past runner-up in both the US Open and Open Championship, he's also had four more top fives in the majors since the start of 2022.

Many will pick him to win the Open at his local course, Royal Birkdale, later this summer but he'll be the absolute centre of attention that week and likely to feel all the extra stress that brings.

Here, he's just part of the cast; others will attract more eyeballs.

With that greater sense of freedom, this might be the place to back him and, given his appreciation of good things and bonus quirks, you just know how much Fleetwood would relish being handed the Green Jacket by his great mate McIlroy.

Fleetwood shares fourth place on the trends with countryman Matt Fitzpatrick. But with Fleetwood one place below Scheffler in Apex Height this season (Fitzpatrick is second last in 168th), he's the preferred option of the two big English contenders.

Back Tommy Lad at 20s each-way. 

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Bet 3: Adam Scott @ 50/151.00

It's far from uncommon to see a veteran on the leaderboard at Augusta - and not just for the first three days.

Tiger was 43 when he won in 2019, Justin Rose was 44 when being ousted by McIlroy in a playoff last year and Phil Mickelson was 52 when finishing joint-second in 2023.

As well as all being great players, specifically they had enormous history at Augusta.

Tiger and Phil had previously won seven Green Jackets between them while Rose had twice been a runner-up and five times a first-round leader.

Also, all had shown that they weren't yet spent forces in the Majors despite the march of Father Time.

Woods has finished runner-up in his previous Major (the 2018 Open Championship), we were just two years on from Mickelson's win in the 2021 US PGA while Rose, like Tiger, had also finished second in the previous summer's Open.

The one who fits into that pattern this time is Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters champion.

Yes, it's a long time between drinks but in his last five Majors Scott has finished 10th at the 2024 Open, 19th in last year's US PGA and 12th (second with a lap to go) in the 2025 US Open.  

Crucially, his performances this year look a great foundation for another strong week in golf's biggest events.

Scott was fourth at Riviera, a course that correlates strongly with this one, 11th at Bay Hill and 21st in Houston a fortnight ago.

Notably, he ranks 3rd for Strokes Gained: Approach this season so he's been hitting his irons beautifully. Scott is 12th Tee-To-Green.

Admittedly, he hasn't really set Augusta alight after a run of 2-8-1 from 2011 to 2013 but he's had plenty of good days in finishing ninth, 14th, 18th and 22nd (2024) since that purple patch and last year's MC was his first halfway exit since 2009.

This is his 25th Masters and 96th straight start in the Majors. The 45-year-old's vast experience is definitely an asset if he's on his game.

And with a dry weather forecast for Masters week, Scott can definitely lean into the control he has with his irons right now.    

Just quickly, two others I considered at 50+ were Riviera winner Jacob Bridgeman and in-form Nicolai Hojgaard, who actually led here during the third round of his debut in 2024 (finished 6th). 

And just maybe Marco Penge takes to Augusta like a duck to water.

Back at the top of the betting, McIlroy has almost become tempting - 12/113.00 win only - but I think it's too simplistic to think all his Masters demons just vanish now that he's won. They're too embedded.

I'll cheer Rahm on  for the trends and also find a side-market for Xander Schauffele in my specials preview later in the week.

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Now read Steve Rawlings' in-depth Masters preview

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*You can follow me on Twitter @DaveTindallgolf

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