After an exceptional three-week stretch of golf culminating with a third-place finish in the stacked field at the WGC Dell Match Play, Corey Conners is trending up just in time for the Masters next week.
Looking to add on to his recent success, Conners tees it up this week at the Valero Texas Open, a tournament he won in 2019 and has a great track record at in three starts. There are no guarantees of his finish this week, but history dictates another strong finish should be in store, giving him even more momentum heading into Augusta.
The Masters is April 7-10. That should work well for Ontario sports betting golf enthusiasts.
Despite this recent success, Connersā odds to win the Masters can still be found as high as +7000 (bet365) at some major sportsbooks. A few places have adjusted the odds a bit, headlined by DraftKings Sportsbook Ontario, which moved him from +6500 to +5500 on Tuesday morning. Seeing other sportsbooks follow suit in the coming days would not be surprising.
To put these numbers into context, Dustin Johnson, who Conners just beat for third place in the Match Play event, is +1600. As a former Masters champion and widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, this number still makes sense for Johnson. Jon Rahm is the current favorite at +800.
Conners is listed at +900 to finish in the top five at the Masters and +450 to finish in the top 10. Listed below are opening odds, then current odds for Canadians in the Masters field:
Updated Masters Odds for Canadians
| ā Corey Conners | +6500 | +5500 |
| ā MacKenzie Hughes | +20000 | +18000 |
| ā Mike Weir | +100000 | +100000 |
Where is Tiger Woods?
Other players who Conners bested en route to his finish were Abraham Ancer and Louis Oosthuizen, with Ancer now moved behind Conners on the odds board at +7000 and Oosthuizen, the 15th-ranked golfer in the world, slightly ahead at +4500.
Tiger Woods, who hasnāt played competitive golf in over a year and hasnāt even officially confirmed that he will be playing the Masters, sits at +5500 at DraftKings, the same as Conners. Signs point to Woods teeing it up as his jet took him to Augusta on Tuesday morning and all indications are that he is close to making a decision on his status.
Conners Good at Augusta
It isnāt just the recent form that points to Conners as a good bet to do well at the Masters. His track record at Augusta is exceptional with an eighth-place finish last year and a 10th-place finish two years ago. He was a 46th in his Masters debut in 2019, one week after surprisingly gaining entry into the field by winning the same Valero Texas Open that he is participating in this week.
His recent major performances in general have been strong, with top 20s at The Open and the PGA Championship last year to go along with his eighth-place Masters finish. His third-place finish at the Dell Match Play last week was another indicator that he is able to compete in the strongest of fields and against the best players in the world.
No. 32 in the World
Conners, the top-ranked Canadian, has risen to his highest position in the Official World Golf Rankings as the 32nd ranked player. Primarily, his work off of the tee and his iron game have lifted him to this status. Conners has had a positive Strokes Gained: Off the Tee number in his last 26 tournaments, an absurdly good streak (stats per FantasyNational.com). His play on and around the greens have long been his weaknesses but over the past year he has shown vast improvements in both areas.
Other Canadians in the field include MacKenzie Hughes and 2003 Masters champions Mike Weir, the only Canadian to win a major.
With the continued success with his ball striking and the improvements heās shown with the rest of his game, Conners quite clearly enters the 2022 Masters Tournament at the best he has been.
Having the experience of two top 10s here in the past two years giving him even more confidence. Conners is an excellent bet at the +5500 number and a glaring value at the +6600 or +7000 odds that can still be found for Ontario bettors and golf fans.
