Pat Mayo’s 2026 Masters Picks Cheatsheet: Bets,Weather, DraftKings Notes, Underdog, Parlays, Matchups | Betsperts Golf

MASTERS QUICK BETS

WINNER

LONGSHOTS

FIRST ROUND LEADER

LOW DEBUTANT

  • Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +1800

MAKE CUT PARLAY

LOTTO TICKETS PARLAYS

  • Six of them are at the bottom of this post

2026 MASTERS CHEATSHEET

We’ve reached the end of pre-tourney content. I hope you’ve enjoyed a show per day for Masters week. I’ve loved doing them, but now I’m so very, very tired. I can’t wait to kick back, feel hopeful for a few hours while enjoying Augusta National, only to watch all my wagered money evaporate within four hours on Thursday. A tradition unlike any other.

I’ll be LIVE after round one with Geoff on YouTube (audio feeds after), then again for the Cut Sweats on Friday afternoon. Tune in if you can. Hopefully, we’re having a First Round Leader Party tomorrow night like last year.

Now, if you don’t like to (or simply cannot) read, I’ll be doing this cheat sheet as the first five minutes of the final show before the golf actually starts TONIGHT AT 8pm ET. After that, it’s all your questions. Whatever you want to ask, bring it and dump it in the chat. You can even go ahead and throw your questions in the chat now, in case you can’t make it live. And they’ll probably be answered first that way, too.

WATCH LIVE AT 8 PM ET: Masters Picks Cheatsheet | Final Bets, Fantasy Golf Picks, DFS Plays, Latest News + Q&A

I’ll be up early (because MASTERS THURSDAY!!!!), also, I have a 3-week-old baby. Regardless, I’ll be monitoring any early morning news and kicking around Twitter if you have questions. If someone WDs pre-lock, I’ll send out an emergency newsletter post so you get it in your inbox in the off chance you miss it. So Sub.

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2026 MASTERS PICKS

Xander Schauffele — A winner in Japan during the Fall Season, Xander is currently suffering a case of the Tommy Fleetwoods, which has kept him from hoisting a novelty check in 2026, despite some close calls. What are the ‘Tommy Fleetwoods,’ you ask? That would be playing amazingly for three rounds and awful for one to fall just short of winning. That said, Xander’s gained over six strokes T2G in three of his past four starts, all Top 10s, while averaging +6.5 SG: APP in his last two appearances. That’s to go along with three consecutive Top 10s at The Masters.

Tommy Fleetwood — Betting on Tommy to win any tournament, let alone the Masters, seems insane, but here we are. He’s played five PGA events in 2026 and finished Top 10 in four of them. He’s currently 4th T2G, including leading at THE PLAYERS, but just hasn’t rolled it well at all. He’s lost on the greens in three straight, on the heels of gaining with his putter in 10 of 11 starts. While it’s no certainty his putting prowess returns specifically this week, Fleetwood’s five-year ascent on the PGA TOUR indicates he’s actually quite good with the flat stick. He’s even gained on these Augusta greens three of the past four years. So, if he can continue his elite play tee-to-green and flip his putter back to normal levels, Tommy Lad is plenty live in a year in flux at the top of the board.

Cameron Young — Am I envious of some of those gaudy future tickets? Yes. Not going to stop me, however. After ending last season with his breakthrough victory at the Wyndham and reeling off five Top 11 finishes in a row, Young wasn’t able to replicate a similar iron and putting to begin the season. He arrived at Riviera, and it flipped back. In his last three events, he’s gained almost five strokes on approach and two on the greens per start, leading to a T7/T3/Win run.

Throw these two in the “I want it to happen” more than the “I think it’s going to happen category. Hence, I have these two with the 8 placement bets.

Akshay Bhatia — Akshay actually fits the bill perfectly, though. An ascending talent with no finish worse than T16 in any of his past five starts, with a win at Bay Hill. He’s made the cut in both his first two Masters starts, while his irons and putting have been lethal. Many will point to his horrendous driving display during his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but it’s worth noting that was the only time he’s lost with his driver in any of those five starts. And he did still win that tournament. The bigger worry comes from his pit stop in India. Since Hero is his sponsor, he traveled to the Hero Indian Open two weeks ago and promptly missed the cut. Since I’m betting on him, I’m choosing not to care about it. It is a reason most are fading him this week, however.

Nicolai Hojgaard — Nicolai is a dream. But I’m a heavy sleeper. He’s the only player in this year’s Masters who ranks inside the Top 30 in driving, approach, chipping, and putting. He’s fresh off a runner-up in Houston and has actually had a flash at Augusta in his limited appearances. Hojgaard was in contention well into the third round in 2024 as a debutant before completely collapsing coming home, struggling on Sunday, finishing with a T14. He was brutal a year ago, missing the cut, but he was pretty bad all of 2025. One positive, in his six Augusta rounds, he’s only dropped strokes to the field once with the driver and has gained over a stroke chipping in four of six rounds.

2026 Masters WEATHER

The weather this year looks amazing. Thursday appears to be the toughest day, as it’s the only one with wind gusts projected over 10 mph. The very early morning will see the worst of it for about an hour, then it’ll level off. The PM wave will get slightly less gusty and more favorable conditions, but not enough to make me switch everything up. The gap between the toughness of the waves doesn’t appear that significant. Most of the day will be single-digit mph winds with gusts around 15 mph. That’s barely considered windy to a lot of these guys. It’s just way more than the other three days.

There are 20+ mph winds expected after 8 pm Sunday, which could sneak into the final round for the leaders if it moves up a little bit, but there’s nothing we can really do to plan for that.

WIND TOWER: DANIEL FIELD AIRPORT

2026 Masters DraftKings Ownership

If you want a full breakdown on lineup construction, pivots, and top plays, I recommend Blickle, Tambo, and my extensive DraftKings show.

We covered it all. Tambo even came in FIRED UP, which was a real treat. If you want the easy click button, get all that in The Rabbit Hole at Betsperts Golf. Code “MAYO10” gets you a month for $10; code “MAYO” gets you 25% off all plans. Choose your fighter.

Projections And Ownership Data Powered by the Rabbit Hole Tool

Jon Rahm has all the steam and will likely be the highest-owned golfer at around 25%. This should keep Bryson and Rory in check. There’s a chance Rory is sub-10%. It’s not a betting favorite right now, but it’s starting to trend into coin-flip territory. Bryson should be sub-20%, but could still get there. After Rahm, expect Fitzpatrick, Min Woo Lee, Henley, and Si Woo to have ~20% ownership. Which makes sense, as Rahm/Fitz/Min Woo/Si Woo/Henley leave you $7,900 remaining for the last man in. This will likely be the most common core of players.

Xander and Ludvig are trending from 17–22%, with Cam Young/Fleetwood/MacIntyre in the 15–20% range.

McNealy/Spaun/Scott/Knapp/Bridgeman/Nicolai/English are the most popular options sub-$7,500. They’ll land somewhere between 8–14%.

No $6K players are expected to breach even 7%. Kitayama, Stevens, and Gerard appear to be the most popular picks. Nothing to be concerned about, though.

Scheffler is the toughest one. Projections across lots of places can’t agree. I think he’ll be around 15%, since lineups without him just look (and project) so much better.

If you’re looking for pivot plays to sub into parts of your lineup (obviously, you don’t only need to play low-owned guys) from each range, I like: Rory, Reed, Hovland, Straka, Woodland, Fox, Michael Kim, and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen as swaps to unchalk your lineups with a 1v1 if you need them.

The Rabbit Hole has the easiest way to build lineups. The standard optimizer is available with projections and GPP scores, but under “Legacy Tools,” you can find the old-school Fantasy National Lineup Generator. The one you’re used to, where you just star the players you want, input how many lineups you need, and can move player shares around any way you like. This remains my favorite way to build lots of lineups.

Projections And Ownership Data Powered by the Rabbit Hole Tool

I’m still tinkering with what I’m doing in the $3,333 Milly Maker. If you’re not in that contest, wish me luck. If I win, I’ll certainly give some of it away to you good people.

Masters Underdog Entries

Beyond Round-by-Round plays, Underdog is also a spot to get your MAKE/MISS cut action if no other places will let you combo those together.

TAIL OR FADE + Use code “MAYO” at Underdog for a deposit bonus up to $1000

The Lotto Parlays (aka Lighting your money on fire)

NOTE: J.J Spaun’s win last week is fueling this insanity

Make Cut Parlay: +18964

14 LEGGER: Akshay/Scott/Conners/Knapp/Spaun/Nicolai/Bridgeman/English/M. Kim/N. Taylor/Woodland/McCarty/Fox/Reed

Make/Miss Cut Parlay 1: +11550

MAKE: M. Kim/N. Taylor/Woodland/McCarty/Fox/Jarvis
MISS: Noren/Gerard

Make/Miss Cut Parlay 2: +6617

MAKE: Fox/M. Kim/Bridgeman/English
MISS: Noren/Bubba/Potgieter/Brennan

1st Round 3-Ball Parlay: +21791

TO WIN THEIR GROUPS RD1: Neergaard-Petersen/Fox/McCarty/Taylor/Hovland/Willett

Miss The Cut Parlay 1: +10033

Brooks/Penge/Cam Smith/Potgieter/Sam Stevens

Miss The Cut Parlay 2: +91077

Scheffler/Brooks/Penge/Cam Smith/Potgieter/Sam Stevens

How to get Ballots in FREE HELIX MATTRESS GIVEAWAY DRAW

You have until Monday morning to get into the giveaway draw. Plus, all this stuff helps me out tremendously. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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