This article is part of our FanDuel PGA DFS Picks series.
The Masters
Course: Augusta National Golf Club (7,555 yards, par 72)
Purse: $20,000,000
Winner: $3,600,000 and 750 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
There really is nothing like the hype and anticipation for Masters week. We've waiting since mid-July for major championship golf, and we get to go back again to the most iconic course in the sport. Every Masters has its own set of interesting storylines to watch out for, and this year is no different. Most of the focus this week with lie on the shoulders of Rory McIlroy who is looking to complete the the career Grand Slam, and win his first major of any kind since 2014. McIlroy is coming into Augusta with possibly the best form he's every had after scoring wins at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and THE PLAYERS Championship over the last few months. Scottie Scheffler on the other hand is still looking for his first win in 2025, but he's going to have a great shot at winning the Masters for the third time in four years.
While Scheffler and McIlroy are the heavy favorites, there's a large group of players behind who will look to crash the party. 2023 Masters champion Jon Rahm has the third lowest odds and will look to put a disappointing 2024 major season behind him. Rahm has finished in the top-10 in every LIV Golf event he's completed since joining the breakaway league. One LIV player who had no issues at the majors last year was Bryson DeChambeau. The U.S. Open Champion also scored a T6 at the Masters and a runner-up at the PGA Championship last season. The story of the majors in 2024 was Xander Schauffele, however, who won both the PGA Championship and Open Championship. Schauffele has struggled for much of 2025 with a rib injury, but he's coming off one of his best ever weeks on approach at the Valspar Championship.
You've got another group of multiple major champions not far behind all those players. Collin Morikawa has just been putting on a ball-striking clinic since his T3 finish last year at the Masters. The 2020 PGA and 2021 Open champ has done everything but win over the last two years, but this week just might be his time. Justin Thomas is another player who has struck the ball exceptionally well and has racked up a ton of strong finishes since his last PGA Tour victory at the 2022 PGA Championship. Then there's Brooks Koepka who always has to be mentioned when we come to majors considering he's won five of them. That said, Koepka did not finish inside the top-25 in any of the majors in 2024. Lastly we have Jordan Spieth who is starting to show signs of life after offseason wrist surgery. When the Texan won the Masters 10 years ago, I don't think anyone would have thought he'd still be sitting on one green jacket at this point. Spieth has finished top-four on five other occasions at the Masters, but maybe this is the week that changes.
While all the players mentioned thus far know what it's like to taste victory at a major, there's a group of very talented players who have not yet climbed the mountain. Ludvig Aberg is the only player under 30-1 who fits that bill. He's there for good reason given his incredible 2024 season, which included a runner-up at Augusta. The Swede won The Genesis Invitational earlier this year and certainly has the game to contend for decades at Augusta. Joaquin Niemann earned a special invite to the Masters due to his play across the globe over the last year. He leads the 2025 LIV Golf standings thanks to two victories and topped the 2024 International Series Order of Merit. Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Cantlay, Tyrrell Hatton and Russell Henley are other potential first-time major champions to keep an eye out for this week.
Like a lot of venues, Augusta National can play drastically different depending on the weather. After a very hot week for the Augusta National Women's Amateur, things will cool down quite a bit for the Masters. The question will be what affect does the absolute dumping of rain on Monday have on the tournament? The rest of the week looks very promising, however, so we should see the course dry out and hopefully get back to the ideal firm and fast conditions by the weekend. There's a slight risk of rain on Friday morning, but if we can avoid that, I would expect the scoring to track close to what we've seen for the last four years with a winning score in the 10-to-12-under range.
Recent Champions
2024 - Scottie Scheffler (-11)
2023 - Jon Rahm (-12)
2022 - Scottie Scheffler (-10)
2021 - Hideki Matsuyama (-10)
2020 - Dustin Johnson (-20)
2019 - Tiger Woods (-13)
2018 - Patrick Reed (-15)
2017 - Sergio Garcia (-9)
2016 - Danny Willett (-5)
2015 - Jordan Spieth (-18)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Driving Distance
- SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
- Par-5 Scoring/Three-Putt Avoidance
Champion's Profile
Augusta National has always been the ultimate second-shot course. There's enough room to work off the tees and recover off some of these fairways, but the second-shot is always the most important. These green complexes are unlike anything players will face all year. An approach that is just slightly off can have massive consequences. There is so much undulation in these greens, and finding the right tier for where the hole location is that day is going to be key. Generally when the pin is in a low spot on the green you can attack. If the pin is on one of the high points on the green, players should play conservative to not kick off the green into a spot where it's a near impossible up-and-down.
Experience always seems to win out at Augusta National. We've seen that older players can get in the mix here because so much knowledge is involved with playing this course. It's all about knowing where you can miss it to each hole location. Scrambling and short-game play is always so huge here, but a lot of the potential success with that comes back to being smart and executing on your approach shot to not miss it in the wrong spot. The last two things to focus on will be par-5 scoring and three-putt avoidance. The par-5's on this course are always so exciting and offer eagle chances, but also can easily turn into big numbers with one poor shot. The top contenders on Sunday afternoon are almost always the players who are executing on the par-5's the best. I mentioned the amount of undulation on these greens, and that alone will make it very easy to three-putt. That again comes back to executing on approach to not put yourself in bad positions. Dialing in the speed at Augusta is everything, however, and it takes a very creative player to find the right line to play on a lot of these very lengthy putts you can run into. There will be a lot of shots you can save this week with good lag putts, and also help to avoid the stress of some of these very difficult 4-8 foot par putts you can get.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Scottie Scheffler ($13,500)
It's tough to not click on Scheffler even at this number. His ball striking is just so consistent and he and caddie Ted Scott just have such of good feel on how to attack Augusta National. Scott has won four Masters as a caddie and Scheffler has never finished worse than T19 here in his career. Scheffler also has one of the best short-game's in the world and has gained strokes with the putter in seven of his last eight starts. While he hasn't yet won in 2025, Scheffler's been close enough to give me confidence that he can put four good rounds together.
Rory McIlroy ($12,800)
If it's ever going to happen for McIlroy at Augusta, this would be the year. He's coming in with just impeccable form having finished T17 or better in 12 of his last 13 starts, with three victories in that stretch. McIlroy leads the PGA Tour in SG: Total and scoring average this season and is in the top-15 in par-3, par-4 and par-5 scoring. All parts of his game are there; it's just going to be overcoming the mental hurdle and getting off to a solid start. McIlroy has seven top-10s and 12 top-25s in his career at the Masters.
Collin Morikawa ($12,100)
Morikawa's ball-striking numbers have been pretty unbelievable this season. He is 12th in SG: Off-the-Tee, fourth in driving accuracy, first in SG: Approach, ninth in GIR percentage, first in proximity and first in SG: Tee-to-Green. Morikawa is performing quite well in the feel part of the game as well, sitting 34th in SG: Around-the-Green, 20th in scrambling and fifth in putts per GIR. It's really just pure luck Morikawa hasn't won since the fall of 2023 given how well he has played since then. The 28-year-old finished 5th-T10-T3 the last three years at Augusta.
The Middle Tier
Will Zalatoris ($10,100)
After a lot of injury struggles over the last couple years, Zalatoris has worked to rebuild his golf swing and the results have started to show as he has made his last 11 cuts with seven top-26 finishes in that stretch. For a player who only has 14 career major starts, Zalatoris has finished top-10 in half of them, including in all three appearances at Augusta. His iron play has returned to vintage form at 20th in SG: Approach, 19th in GIR percentage and 10th in proximity.
Russell Henley ($9,900)
It doesn't matter the week, Henley always seems like he is lower than he should be. DataGolf has him as the No. 6 ranked golfer in the world and this is a great chance to take advantage of him at just under $10K. Henley is 11th in driving accuracy, 22nd in SG: Approach, third in GIR percentage, sixth in proximity, 16th in SG: Around-the-Green and 19th in SG: Putting this season. Expect the Arnold Palmer Invitational winner to be in the mix. Henley has made his last seven cuts at Augusta with four top-25s, including a T4 in 2023.
Sepp Straka ($9,400)
Another player whose price doesn't match the production, Straka is crushing it this season ranking ninth in driving accuracy, fifth in SG: Approach, second in GIR percentage, second in proximity and sixth in SG: Tee-to-Green. He is also third in birdie average, seventh in bogey avoidance and second in par-5 scoring average. There's just far too much working in Straka's favor to pass on this price. He has made the cut in all three starts at Augusta with a best finish of T16 last year.
The Long Shots
Sergio Garcia ($8,700)
Yes I'm aware that Garcia has missed the cut in five of his last six starts since his triumph in 2017 at the Masters, but the value is extremely good here for a player who is having a career resurgence at age 45. Garcia has finished top-six in three of the first six LIV Golf events, including a victory in Hong Kong. He also finished fourth at the International Series Macau. Garcia ranks 19th on DataGolf and is inside the four on LIV in driving accuracy, GIR percentage and scrambling.
J.J. Spaun ($8,500)
Given the importance of iron play at Augusta National, Spaun deserves a mention here. He ranks second in SG: Approach, seventh in GIR percentage and 10th in proximity this season. Spaun has already been in a lot of big pressure spots in 2025 having finished top-three at the Sony Open, Cognizant Classic and THE PLAYERS Championship. He finished T23 in his only other start at the Masters in 2022 when he gained strokes across the board. He's a much better player now.
Denny McCarthy ($7,800)
McCarthy is to me the most sure-fire pick in the $7K range. He has made his last 13 cuts with nine top-26 finishes in that stretch. We know about McCarthy's incredible putting abilities at seventh in SG: Putting this season, but he also has gained on approach in five of his last six starts. He will have some knowledge to bank on this time around after making the cut in his Masters debut last year where he was one of the leaders in SG: Putting.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
To me every lineup should start with either Scheffler, McIlroy or Morikawa. Those have been the clear best three players in the world of late from a strokes gained perspective, and all three have excellent history at Augusta National. I didn't really touch on the $10K and $11K range much above, which probably speaks to the strength of those top three options, but also I think there are some players with concerns. Aberg ($11,900) and Hideki Matsuyama ($10,900) are both coming in off two straight missed cuts. Schauffele ($11,600) is still trying to put his whole game together off the rib injury. Niemann ($10,800) has crushed it on LIV but hasn't finished better than T16 in 22 career major starts. And Rahm ($11,800) and Koepka ($10,700) were very disappointing in the majors last year. That said, I think one of DeChambeau ($11,400), Thomas ($11,100), Fleetwood ($10,500) or Shane Lowry ($10,400) makes for an excellent pick alongside one of those top three options.
The $9K range is by far the deepest. There are a lot of really strong ball strikers in the mix there who I could see having a very nice week. Corey Conners ($9,800), Robert MacIntyre ($9,600) and Daniel Berger ($9,300) are a few other options not mentioned above I'd look at. The goal first and foremost is going to be to get everyone to the weekend. This is by far the easiest of the four majors to make the cut in considering there's so many amateurs and older past champs who don't play regularly on the PGA Tour. Plus there's only 95 players and the top-50 and ties will make the weekend. That said, even one missed cut will make it very difficult to cash. Rely on players who excel at ball striking and take your chances.
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