The third event of the controversial Saudi-backed tour is being played at Bedminster, New Jersey, which is a Trump-owned course.
A source with LIV Golf told Reuters that Trump and his son Eric will tee up with 2020 US Open winner DeChambeau and two-time major winner Johnson during the Pro-Am on Thursday ahead of its first round which starts the next day.
The LIV Golf tour has been criticized widely for offering vast swathes of money from Saudi Arabia, a country with a dismal human rights record, for players to leave the traditional golf tours.
Earlier this month, Trump told golfers that they should join the LIV Golf series and “take the money now.”
“All of those golfers that remain ‘loyal’ to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big ‘thank you’ from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday.
“If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were.”
His comments come as a 9/11 survivors’ group has said it is “appalled” by the “offensive, disrespectful and hurtful” LIV Golf tour ahead of the New Jersey event being staged about 50 miles (80km) from the site of the deadly terror attack.
Speaking on Tuesday at a press conference near the Bedminster course, Terry Strada, chair of 9/11 Families United — a coalition of families and survivors of the 2001 terror attacks — said that playing such a tournament so close to the venue of the worst terrorist attack in American history is wrong.
Players have also been criticized for abandoning the established PGA Tour and DP World Tour in search of eye-watering money payoffs.
The allegations of Saudi government complicity with the attacks on September 11, 2001, have long been the subject of dispute in Washington. Fifteen of the 19 al Qaeda terrorists who hijacked four planes were Saudi nationals, but the Saudi government has denied any involvement in the attacks.
The 9/11 Commission established by Congress said in 2004 that it had found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” al Qaeda.
Still, the victims’ families have pushed for further disclosures, and last year, the FBI released a document that details the FBI’s work to investigate the alleged logistical support that a Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent in Los Angeles provided to at least two hijackers.
In response to the criticism, LIV Golf told CNN in a statement: “As we have said all along, these families have our deepest sympathy. While some may not agree, we believe golf is a force for good around the world.”
The 9/11 issue is just one of a number of criticisms of the LIV Golf series.
Fronted by former world No. 1 Greg Norman, the team-based LIV series is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) — a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia — and has pledged to award $250 million in total prize money.
Tournaments are held over 54 holes, rather than the PGA Tour’s 72 holes, and there are no players cut during tournament play.
The huge sums of money up for grabs, and less demanding requirements, spurred a number of golfers — many in the twilight of their careers — to break away from the PGA Tour and join LIV, including six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, four-time major champion Brooks Koepka and former world No. 1 Johnson.
TULSA, Okla. — Bryson DeChambeau will not participate in the PGA Championship at Southern Hills on Thursday after all, withdrawing from the major after playing a practice round Wednesday.
“After careful consideration, I have decided to WD from the @PGAChampionship,” DeChambeau posted on Twitter late Wednesday afternoon. “I want to make a full return when I am 100% ready to compete at golf’s highest level. Thank you all for the continued support!”
It had appeared as if DeChambeau would be making his return to competitive golf after missing more than a month while he recovered from surgery to repair a bone in his left wrist.
He spent the day hitting multiple shots off different tees at Southern Hills Country Club, working the ball in different directions as he tested his wrist, which was in a wrap that extended several inches up his left forearm. He bombed several drives while playing the back nine, showing no signs of pain.
Asked during his practice round how his left wrist was feeling, DeChambeau was coy: “It’s still attached.”
His return was not meant to be, however.
DeChambeau, 28, had been out of action since early April, missing the cut at last month’s Masters, the first major of the season, after carding a 12-over total in the first two rounds. He elected to have surgery on his left wrist to repair a fractured hook of the hamate bone.
The typical recovery is four to six weeks.
“I’m proud of the fact that I’m here,” DeChambeau, who also played a practice round Tuesday, said in an interview with Golf Channel before he withdrew from the event. “I’m proud I’ve been able to persevere through it. I’ve had a lot of stuff going on recently and the game has not been a fun thing for me, so I’m excited to get back and give it another shot. Everybody deserves a second chance.”
He signed autographs and took selfies with fans for 10 minutes during the long wait between some holes. DeChambeau seemed to be in good spirits Wednesday, joking and chatting with his playing partner, Anirban Lahiri.
On the 14th hole, a par-3 that plays 230 yards, he hit a low draw with a 6-iron into the front bunker, then immediately dropped a second ball in mild frustration. On his second attempt, he hit a high draw into the middle of the green. There appeared to be no hesitation at impact, even when hitting off the firm turf.
DeChambeau, who won the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, has fallen to 22nd in the Official World Golf Ranking (down from No. 5 at his peak) and is 219th in FedEx Cup points. He missed the cut in three of his past four starts and has just one top-25 finish in five starts this season.
In 2020, he finished fourth at the PGA Championship at Harding Park, his best finish at a major outside his U.S. Open win at Winged Foot.
Denny McCarthy was added to the field for Thursday’s first round in lieu of DeChambeau’s absence.
Bryson DeChambeau is on to the final round of the Professional Long Drivers Association World Championship after finishing tied for fourth in the third round of the tournament on Thursday in Mesquite, Nevada.
The event began Tuesday, when the field was narrowed down to 64. It went down to 32 on Wednesday, and now the top 16 will compete for the title on Friday, with DeChambeau’s division starting at 6:45 p.m. ET.
DeChambeau finished in second place for his group on Tuesday and Wednesday and finished tied for fourth place on Thursday.
“The first couple days was me just excited to be out here competing,” DeChambeau said. “I was very nervous. The second day felt like, ‘OK, I’ve gotten a lot of these guys.’ But the third day, today, these guys are right there with me and it’s not easy. You’re going up against some of the best in the world. Right in the last set, you can clearly see that guys are 20 yards past me in this wind.”
DeChambeau’s long drive on Thursday was 359 yards, but he got all the way up to 412 yards on Tuesday with the help of a tail wind.
The golfers took part in five sets each day, hitting six balls against two or three other participants. Each set has a point value of 200 for first, 100 for second, 50 for third and 25 for fourth place, and the total points are tallied to find the winners in each group.
DeChambeau admitted the format has been a grind and that he isn’t used to this type of event, where he is actively trying to unleash his strength on every shot for four days.
“I’m getting tired, I can tell you that,” he said. “It’s an endurance battle. These guys have some higher speeds and more endurance than me. They’ve trained for this a lot longer. It’s definitely just an honor to get to the last round. I did not think I was going to get to the final round, but the conditions were right for me and worked out pretty well.”
Part of his strategy in the tournament and part of the success he is seeing in the tournament has been about his accuracy. The long drivers have to keep their ball in bounds, within a marked off grid, or the drive doesn’t count for distance.
DeChambeau has been one of the more accurate drivers this entire week, and despite losing some balls out of bounds due to fatigue Thursday, he said he’s going to rest up overnight and focus on keeping his ball in play to give him a chance at the title.
“It puts a lot of pressure on them when they miss a couple and then they’re like, ‘Well, I got to get one in,'” DeChambeau said. “It puts tremendous amount of stress on them, and that’s usually my strong suit. Hopefully I can lock it in a little bit better tomorrow and get a lot more into the grid, because that’s my specialty.”
DeChambeau has said one of his main goals for the competition, outside of winning, is to help bring visibility to the sport of long driving. At one point during the livestream on Thursday, the commentators noted that there were over 18,000 viewers and were ecstatic to see that number of people watching the event.
Now that he’s in the final 16, DeChambeau will have a real shot at winning, but he will have to take on the world No. 1 long driver, Kyle Berkshire, for the first time in the tournament. He has already felt the pressure of the other competitors and the format of having to hit six golf balls in the time limit of 2 minutes, 30 seconds for each set.
DeChambeau has ridden the excitement of his first tournament all the way to the final round and said he’s going to keep riding that wave of adrenaline he feels every time he steps up to hit a long drive.
“I can’t wait to see where this goes, because on that tee box, there’s almost nothing like it,” DeChambeau said. “I’ll tell you the Ryder Cup was amazing, winning tournaments is unbelievable, but it’s a different type of adrenaline in that situation. Definitely trying to control the adrenaline where here you’re trying to unleash the adrenaline, which is pretty rare for me, but it’s great to get to try that.”
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Things went so well for the U.S. Ryder Cup team this week that by the end of the 19-9 blowout victory, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka were hugging. Several times.
The superstars — who had a months-long spat play out on social media, causing U.S. captain Steve Stricker to issue an edict that it be put aside for Ryder Cup week — were all smiles Sunday.
The U.S. won big and both players contributed. Koepka won his singles match over Bernd Wiesberger and DeChambeau took his over Sergio Garcia. The pair celebrated a much-needed American victory in a competition that has often gone the other way.
Koepka finished 2-2 for the week and DeChambeau was 2-0-1. While the rest of the team sang “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” Justin Thomas coaxed the two into posing with the Ryder Cup.
“I think before this is all over we should have Brooks and Bryson hug in the middle of the room,” Thomas said during the postmatch news conference. “To prove how much of a team we are, they are going to hug.”
Stricker acknowledged afterward that the two players had asked to play together.
“Speechless,” Stricker said. “These guys all came together. They had a mission this week. Brooks and Bryson wanted to play together. That’s how much they all came together. This is a new era for USA golf.”
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Bryson DeChambeau’s remarkable length off the tee is already providing an advantage for the United States at the 43rd Ryder Cup.
DeChambeau, who led the PGA Tour in driving distance last season, took a very aggressive line on the 581-yard, par-5 fifth hole in Friday afternoon’s four-ball match. He lined up to hit his tee shot directly over fans standing to the right of the tee box, while his partner, Scottie Scheffler, and European opponents, Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm, hit their drives on a more traditional line to the left.
Follow all the action on Day 1 at the Ryder Cup
The line on the left is Scheffler’s drive, which went 305 yards. The line on the right is DeChambeau’s ball.
DeChambeau’s drive ended up being 417 yards, leaving him 72 to the hole. Scheffler had 274 left in. Rahm hit his tee ball 336 yards and still had 253 left for his second shot.
DeChambeau chipped to 4 feet and made an eagle putt to tie the match after five holes.
Come for the 🦅, stay for the 417 yard drive 😳@b_dechambeau | #GoUSA pic.twitter.com/m1D1CdvtTQ
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) September 24, 2021
DeChambeau’s opening 330-yard tee shot of the match bounced off a woman’s shin and landed in thick rough in the native area. He somehow got up and down for a birdie to tie the hole.
SANDWICH, England — While Brooks Koepka took great delight in his rival’s missteps, Bryson DeChambeau apologized again Friday for his strong remarks a day earlier about his equipment company and made the cut on the number to qualify for the weekend at Royal St. George’s.
DeChambeau is 12 strokes back of tournament leader Louis Oosthuizen through two rounds of The Open. But the world’s oldest golf championship has seemingly been pushed aside because of DeChambeau’s antics, which included saying that his driver “sucks” and drawing a rebuke from equipment maker Cobra.
“I love my driver,” Koepka said coyly in an interview with Golf Channel after a 66 that saw him move into a tie for 12th.
He later tweeted a photo with the caption: “Driving into the weekend!”
Driving into the weekend! pic.twitter.com/poSQG0mrvC
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) July 16, 2021
DeChambeau, who shot a second-round 70, was left to pick up the pieces. He declined television and media requests but spoke to a small group of reporters.
“I made a mistake,” he said. “I think as time goes on, I’ll look at this as a growing moment for me personally, and hopefully I can make the right things going on from here on out. I was in a heated situation, and I feel really bad about it.”
After his opening-round 71 in which he hit just four of 14 fairways, DeChambeau said that his “driver sucks” and that he was living on the razor’s edge after four years of trying to get it right.
Ben Schomin, who caddied for DeChambeau two weeks after his split with former caddie Tim Tucker and is Cobra’s tour operations manager, pushed back in an interview with Golfweek, saying the comments were “stupid” and expressing frustration at how hard the company works to appease the eight-time PGA Tour winner.
SANDWICH, England — If Brooks Koepka is asked, he seems willing to answer any continued questions about Bryson DeChambeau.
Koepka was asked again Tuesday at The Open about their ongoing feud, and the four-time major winner said he’s fine keeping it going because DeChambeau went back on his word about an agreement they had, so now he’s “fair game.”
Their differences were highlighted again two months ago when a taped interview of Koepka showing his disgust for DeChambeau was leaked and went viral. There has been a good bit of back and forth since, all of it starting with Koepka’s slow-play complaints about DeChambeau in 2019.
Koepka said the deal they made came during a discussion at the 2019 Northern Trust tournament at Liberty National in Jersey City, New Jersey.
“We had a conversation at Liberty, and he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain and I didn’t like that, so I’ll take my shots,” Koepka said.
He then went on to explain how it went wrong.
“He didn’t like that I had mentioned his name in slow play, so we had a conversation in the locker room,” Koepka said. “And then I guess we said something else in the press conference but didn’t mention his name in it, and he walked up to [Koepka’s caddie] Ricky [Elliott], said something. It was, ‘You tell your man if he’s got something to say, say it to myself.’ I thought that was ironic because he went straight to Ricky. Ricky told me when I came out, hit a few putts, and then just walked right over to him, we had a conversation.
“We both agreed we’d leave each other out of it and wouldn’t mention each other, just kind of let it die off, wouldn’t mention each other’s names, just go about it. So then he decided I guess he was going on that little, whatever, playing video games online [on Twitch in which he made light of Koepka appearing in ESPN’s The Body Issue] or whatever and brought my name up and said a few things, so now it’s fair game.”
DeChambeau also spoke on the matter on Tuesday.
“He can say whatever he wants,” DeChambeau said. “I think he said something back at Liberty National not upholding something. I don’t know what he’s talking about in that regard. Maybe that’s on me. Maybe I didn’t. I really don’t remember anything about that. We just had a conversation that I really don’t know what happened, because we haven’t really bantered back and forth until now, so it’s like why is that happening now.
“Besides that, I’m just here to play golf and focus on that. If we want to keep bantering back and forth, obviously being respectful and keeping lines where they aren’t getting crossed, yeah, I think it’s fun and a good environment for people in golf.”
Koepka said there would be no issues with DeChambeau as a teammate at the Ryder Cup in September.
“It’s only a week,” he said. “I can put it aside for business. If we’re going to be on the same team, I can deal with anybody in the world for a week. I’m not playing with him. I’m pretty sure we’re not going to be paired together; put it that way. I think it’s kind of obvious.
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t think we’re going to be high-fiving and having late-night conversations. I do my thing, he does his thing. Yeah, we’re on the same team, but it’s not an issue at all. I don’t view it as an issue. I don’t think he does.”
Koepka, who is ranked eighth in the world, has been in the top 5 in three of his past four appearances, including a tie for second behind Phil Mickelson at the PGA Championship and a tie for fourth at the U.S. Open behind Jon Rahm.
He got his first look at Royal St. George’s on Tuesday and was not overly impressed.
“Quite a few blind tee shots, kind of hitting to nothing,” Koepka said. “Fairways are quite undulating. I don’t know, it’s not my favorite of the [10-course] rotation, put it that way.
“[But] I don’t care whether I like the place, don’t like it. You’ve still got to play good and go hit the shots. Playing St. Andrews is probably my favorite place in the entire world to play. Portrush two years ago was … I love that place. I thought that was just such a good Open. A fun golf course to play. Really enjoyed that.
“This one, it’s just not as exciting. I don’t know why. Whether it be a couple shots to nothing, a couple blind tee shots or shots in where you can’t really see much. I’m not too big of a fan of that.”
Koepka, 31, is making his seventh appearance at The Open, his last finish a tie for fourth in 2019 at Royal Portrush. He also tied for sixth in 2017 at Royal Birkdale.
DETROIT — Bryson DeChambeau and caddie Tim Tucker are taking a break, DeChambeau told ESPN’s Michael Collins on Thursday.
DeChambeau is playing in Detroit in the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and Tucker was on the bag for DeChambeau at the start of the week. DeChambeau told Collins that Tucker has not quit outright, but the two are going to take some time apart.
He did not specify how long the break would be, but Ben Schomin will caddie for DeChambeau the remainder of the tournament in Detroit.
Tucker and DeChambeau have had this situation happen before, when Tucker quit in 2017, though the two reunited in 2018.
Brooks Koepka, who has been engaged in a rivalry with DeChambeau, didn’t let Thursday’s news go by without comment. Koepka tweeted a shoutout to his caddie, Ricky Elliott, writing, “Couldn’t do it without my guy Rick!”
Couldn’t do it without my guy Rick! Best friend and greatest caddie to do it💯 @RickyElliott appreciation day! pic.twitter.com/cNvD2VX8Nh
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) July 1, 2021
DeChambeau is the returning champion at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and has yet to start his first round this week.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bryson DeChambeau was going to obliterate Augusta National last fall. He was coming off a convincing 6-shot win at the U.S. Open, overpowering famed Winged Foot. He arrived at the Masters with a plan to do the same.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a green jacket.
DeChambeau hit it far at Augusta, but wide. The underrated short game that also had helped him at Winged Foot let him down. He did make 18 birdies and an eagle on the week — that’s 20 under par, which was the record-setting winning score by Dustin Johnson. But … DeChambeau also made 11 bogeys, two doubles and a triple.
“The stress of the tournament, just the spotlight, the whole thing,” he said. “It all took a toll. It was a combination of a few things that escalated my brain.”
And now he is back again, a bit leaner, with a better understanding and appreciation for both the diet he embarked on to gain weight and distance and the need for precision around a golf course that demands it.
But that does not mean he will tiptoe among the dogwoods and azaleas at the Masters this week, carefully navigating his way around Augusta National.
Bryson DeChambeau again plans to try to blister the place.
“I had to look back on what went wrong, what happened, what didn’t allow me to perform at the highest level I did at the U.S. Open,” DeChambeau said this spring as he was also trying to fine-tune his body. “My driving wasn’t the longest at the U.S. Open, but I putted amazing, I wedged it amazing. My iron play was incredible and I drove it pretty well.”
That, though, didn’t happen after he drove down Magnolia Lane.
“I look at Augusta … there were plenty of opportunities that I missed with wedging, putting and iron play,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it was necessarily the driver that got me into trouble for the most part, but definitely there were times where my putter and my wedges and my iron play did.”
DeChambeau has a simple solution: Keep working on it. Keep trying to increase club-head speed. Keep trying to add distance.
Even if it didn’t work out the first time he brought his scientific methods to Augusta National, DeChambeau walked away still having gained some ground on the field.
He’s got others thinking about him and looking at their own games. While he gets better and follows his plan, others have tried to emulate it and lost their way.
Rory McIlroy presented the best example. While the four-time major champion was never going to become a voracious eater and attempt to gain some 40-odd pounds, as DeChambeau did, he certainly saw the benefits of trying to get more speed in his swing in an effort to hit the ball farther.
“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t anything to do with what Bryson did at the U.S. Open,” McIlroy said after missing the cut at the Players Championship. “I think a lot of people saw that and were like, whoa, if this is the way they’re going to set golf courses up in the future, [distance] helps. It really helps.”
Since the middle of February, McIlroy has two missed cuts and was bounced early from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play after his worst loss in a decade. He does have two top-10s, but even those came with warning signs — he shot 72-76 over the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and closed with 71 at the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession. Both times he had a chance to win. Both times he faltered on the weekend.
“I thought being able to get some more speed is a good thing, and I maybe just — to the detriment a little bit of my swing,” McIlroy said. “I got there, but I just need to maybe rein it back in a little bit.”
McIlroy is not alone.
“You would be stupid if you said what [DeChambeau is] doing to golf courses doesn’t make it easier,” Justin Thomas said. “I think it’s extremely underrated and not talked about enough how straight he hits it for swinging at 135 mph. I can hit it pretty damn crooked at 116 or 117 mph. He hits it really straight at 135. And he putts it really well.
“For me, it’s being able to find that extra 10 or 15 or 20 [yards] if I need it or if I can do it. I would love to fly it 330 every time. No offense to Bryson, I’m not going to put on 40 pounds. I don’t have the build or stature for that. I’ve always been about getting the most out of what I can.”
DeChambeau has put a lot of thought and effort into this over the past two-plus years. He didn’t just start drinking protein shakes and lifting heavy weights one day. Under the guidance of trainer Greg Roskopf, who also works with the NFL’s Denver Broncos, he started to put in place a plan more than two years before he embarked on it in the fall of 2019.
The results were swift. An initial 25-pound weight gain. Added length off the tee that now sees him lead the PGA Tour in driving distance at 320.8 yards. (For the record, McIlroy is third at 319.1).
DeChambeau admits he might have gone too far with all the meat, potatoes, eggs and other food he was consuming. His daily allowance had reached 6,000 calories. The realization that it was time to fine-tune his diet came at the Masters.
In November, DeChambeau said during the tournament and again weeks afterward that he just did not feel right. He was having some balance issues. He even wondered if he had contracted the coronavirus; he took a COVID-19 test prior to the third round. It came back negative.
“I actually went to multiple doctors, multiple people, trying to figure out what this was,” he said. “I got a couple MRIs. Went to an inner-ear doctor, eye tests, eye pressure, ear pressure, even did ultrasound on my heart, ultrasounds on my neck to see the blood flow and how things were moving through the different areas of my body. Everything came back really, really well.”
DeChambeau also explained that he saw some pretty significant changes in his stomach, specifically inflammation. He started working on what he called “gut health” to alleviate the issues.
That meant altering his food intake a bit. So he returns to Augusta National a bit leaner but still carrying the same distance and same plan to attack. The preparation, this time though, is different.
Before the event in November, he took a month off from the PGA Tour and focused only on the Masters. He contemplated using a 48-inch driver to try to gain even more distance to try to shorten Augusta National even more.
While he’s still focused on distance, this time he will have worked extensively on other parts of his game. He will come in with positive results, too. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and was in contention down the stretch at the Players Championship.
Distance is an advantage at Augusta National. DeChambeau knows that. It is not, however, imperative to being atop the leaderboard come early Sunday evening. Recent winners such as Patrick Reed (287.4 yards off the tee, 182nd on tour) or Danny Willett (292.9, 129th) prove you don’t need extra length to take home a green jacket. But it is a big help to be able to drive the bunker at the first hole, or drive the green at the par-4 third, or have short irons into the par-5 13th and 15th holes. At Augusta National, all parts need to be working.
Consider this: DeChambeau played with 63-year-old Bernhard Langer in the final round in November. Langer won both of his Masters before DeChambeau, 27, was born. When they were paired together, Langer was 80 yards behind DeChambeau off the tee. Langer shot 71; DeChambeau shot 73.
“I was in awe just watching how they swing and how hard they hit it, and every once in a while I had to tell myself, go on, stop watching and play your game and figure out what you have to do,” said Langer, who also played with McIlroy during the third round.
DeChambeau seemingly spends every waking moment doing the same thing. That certainly is how it appears when he is at a golf tournament, often under floodlights on the driving range, searching for the right combination of shafts, lofts, swing speed and whatever else is necessary to launch the ball into orbit.
And now comes another shot at the Masters with his go-for-it plan still in place.
“I’m just trying to accomplish winning tournaments,” he said. “I don’t really care too much about what people think. It’s just about if I can do it. Look, if I fail, I’m going to work my hardest to figure out why I failed. So whether the skeptics are proved wrong, I’m not worried about it. I appreciate the skeptics, those that actually makes me think more about — is this actually right? — and makes me go down the rabbit hole even deeper.”
Augusta National Golf Club was a different experience in November, and the 2021 Masters will feature firm fairways and a select number of patrons when the event tees off Thursday, April 8. The softer landing spots at the 2020 event gave the long hitters the advantage, and red-hot Dustin Johnson seized his chance, cruising to a five-stroke victory at a record 20-under. He will try to join Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo as the only players to win the Masters Tournament in consecutive years.
William Hill Sportsbook lists the defending champion as the 8-1 favorite in its latest 2021 Masters odds. Others from the 2021 Masters field high up on the PGA odds board include reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau (9-1), Justin Thomas (11-1), Jon Rahm (11-1), Rory McIlroy (14-1) and Jordan Spieth (14-1). Before you lock in any 2021 Masters picks or PGA Tour predictions, you have to see who Sal Johnson is backing.
A media legend and consummate golf insider, Johnson has a strong feel for what it takes to win at Augusta National. He was all over Dustin Johnson before the 2020 Masters, and even he had Woods as a shocking pick the previous year.
Before November’s event, he tabbed Johnson as the top choice in his best bets. “When he gets on a roll like this, he is nearly impossible to beat,” the golf guru told SportsLine. “He is a man with a purpose, and that is to win another major.” Johnson simply ran away with the event, leading wire-to-wire and winning by five shots for his second major championship.
Even more stunning, Sal Johnson was on top of Woods before his emotional comeback victory in 2019. He featured Woods in his best bets despite the 15-time major winner coming off back surgery. Johnson noted Woods’ tee-to-green game looked almost as sharp as it did in his prime. “And this will be the reason for him winning.” The result? Woods shot 13-under to earn his fifth green jacket.
The golf expert knows these players and how they fit the courses. At the Arnold Palmer Invitational last month, he singled out DeChambeau as his top choice to win before he took his second victory of the year.
He also knows when surging players are poised for a breakthrough. He tabbed Sungjae Im as a top contender before his first Tour win at the Honda Classic last season and touted Tyrell Hatton to get his first tour victory the following week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Anyone who has followed Johnson’s advice has cashed in huge.
Johnson, the first producer of “Inside the PGA Tour” and a longtime ABC Sports technician who worked with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman who was also the founder of the world’s top golf stats database, has released his highly confident 2021 Masters picks, and they will surprise you. You can only see them here.
Top 2021 Masters expert picks
Johnson is fading DeChambeau, even though the 27-year-old leads the tour in driving distance (320.8 yards) and scoring average (69.432) while being one of the top Las Vegas favorites. He also is the reigning U.S. Open champion, but DeChambeau’s best finish at Augusta is a tie for 21st (as an amateur). He is more than just power, as he ranks 28th in overall putting average (1.583) and putts per round (28.5), but his accuracy is a major issue on a course like this. He ranks 81st in greens in regulation (67.4%) and will need an otherworldly putting week to contend.
Jordan Spieth has been making quite a comeback, and Johnson has had his eye on him the whole way. The 2015 Masters champ has finished in the top 15, including three top-fives, in five of his past six starts. He is 43-under par during that span. His season numbers haven’t caught up since he missed the cut in four of seven events before his current run, but his driving has been steady and he typically plays well at Augusta. He is 45th in total strokes gained and 65th in strokes gained putting.
Scottie Scheffler comes off a runner-up finish at the WGC-Dell Match Play, and Johnson likes where his game is right now. The 24-year-old has finished in the top 25 in half of his 14 events this season and he shot in the 60s in six of his eight rounds before missing the cut with 74-71 at the Players Championship. He bounced back by advancing to the final at the Match Play, where he lost to Billy Horschel. He tied for 19th in November at Augusta and ranks in the top 25 in driving accuracy (66.99 percent), greens in regulation (70.33) and strokes gained around the green. You can only see who to pick here.
How to make 2021 Masters predictions
For the Masters 2021, Johnson is touting an epic long shot north of 40-1. This golfer has always been a shot-maker, and players like that are rewarded at the Masters. He could be a huge surprise this week, and anyone who backs this underdog could cash in big. He’s only sharing all of his 2021 Masters bets here.
Who wins the Masters 2021? Where do Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed finish? And which huge long shot is a must-back? Check out the odds below, then visit SportsLine to see Sal Johnson’s full leaderboard, picks and analysis for the 2021 Masters, all from the insider who has been locked in on his picks at Augusta National.
2021 Masters odds
Dustin Johnson 8-1 Bryson DeChambeau 9-1 Jon Rahm 11-1 Justin Thomas 11-1 Rory McIlroy 14-1 Jordan Spieth 14-1 Xander Schauffele 20-1 Brooks Koepka 20-1 Patrick Cantlay 22-1 Patrick Reed 25-1 Collin Morikawa 25-1 Tony Finau 28-1 Lee Westwood 28-1 Tyrrell Hatton 30-1 Viktor Hovland 30-1 Daniel Berger 33-1 Hideki Matsuyama 35-1 Scottie Scheffler 35-1 Webb Simpson 40-1 Paul Casey 40-1 Cameron Smith 40-1 Sung-Jae Im 40-1 Jason Day 45-1 Bubba Watson 45-1 Tommy Fleetwood 50-1 Matthew Fitzpatrick 50-1 Joaquin Niemann 50-1 Sergio Garcia 50-1 Adam Scott 60-1 Justin Rose 66-1 Harris English 66-1 Matthew Wolff 66-1 Will Zalatoris 66-1 Louis Oosthuizen 66-1 Francesco Molinari 80-1 Billy Horschel 80-1 Max Homa 80-1 Jason Kokrak 80-1 Shane Lowry 80-1 Abraham Ancer 80-1 Phil Mickelson 90-1 Victor Perez 90-1 Marc Leishman 100-1 Russell Henley 100-1 Rickie Fowler 100-1 Christiaan Bezuidenhout 100-1 Corey Conners 100-1 Ian Poulter 100-1 Si-Woo Kim 100-1 Matt Kuchar 100-1 Gary Woodland 100-1 Brian Harman 100-1
