Tiger is back and stalking the greens at Augusta, seeking his fifth green jacket. And Tiger at Augusta means two things, 1) the unofficial start to a new golf season and 2) the betting public will be piling their money on the world's No. 1-ranked player to win another major title.
While it's true the official 2009 PGA Tour schedule started a while back, did anyone really notice? The Masters has always been the jump off point for golf fans and sports bettors that the season is underway and it's time to pay attention.
The odds on Tiger to win his fifth Masters is +220 at most online sportsbooks, which makes him the big favorite for Masters odds.
While Woods is always the popular bet and he did win his latest event, this year's Arnold Palmer Invitational, he is coming off knee surgery and hasn't dominated in his other two appearances this season, losing in the second-round of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship and finishing ninth in the WGC-CA Championship.
It has been a while since Tiger stepped up to the winner's podium with "Hootie" Johnson and the winner from the previous year's masters - - Woods' last Masters win came in 2005 - but he has always been in contention, finishing tied for third in 2006, tied for second in 2007 and alone as the runner-up last year.
Tiger will tee off at around 2:00 pm local time on Thursday and will be grouped with Stewart Cink and Jeev Milkha Singh.
Woods will also be seeking his 15th major championship.
To celebrate his chase for this milestone, SPORTSBETTING.com is offering a special "Masters 15% Deposit Bonus" all day Wednesday, heading into Thursday's tee-off. The 15% bonus is available on all deposits all day at SPORTSBETTING.com.
With the extra free bonus cash, you might want to look at bet on Lefty in this year's tourney.
At the start of the week, Phil Mickelson was second only to Woods in the World Golf Rankings and is listed at +800 to win this year's Masters Tournament.
"Lefty" has two green jackets in his closet, one from 2004 and one from 2006, but his Masters results following his last win at Augusta National have been mixed-he was tied for 24th in 2007 and finished tied for fifth last year.
Although Mickelson missed the cut in last week's Shell Houston Open, he has been quite successful this year taking both the Northern Trust Open and the WGC CA Championship.
Sportsbooks are offering "Finishing Position" prop bets for several players. The Over/Under finishing position for Tiger is set at 3.5. Mickelson's is set at 8.5. So if you think Tiger will finish in third or better, or Phil will finish higher than eighth you can take a shot
Tournament Matchup betting for the two is also available, with Mickelson listed at +200 and Tiger listed at -250.
Tiger is seeing 39% of the action in betting for who will win it all and Mickelson is seeing 21%.
Enjoy the tournament.
Remember to grab the special 15% deposit bonus from SPORTSBETTING.com all day on Wednesday, on all deposits.
Bovada Sportsbook •
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 