What $100 would have paid the faithful at Augusta.
Augusta National doesn’t care about your spreadsheet. It doesn’t care about world rankings, hot streaks or who the talking heads picked on Sunday morning.
Every year, the most traditional tournament in golf tears up the chalk and hands a green jacket to someone nobody saw coming.
This is a list of those someones.
Eight winners. Eight longshots. All the proof you need that the field is always live at The Masters.
The One Nobody Watched
We start at the shallow end. Patrick Reed entered the 2018 Masters at 40-1. Not outrageous. Not a favorite either. The books barely noticed him. Reed didn’t care. He led wire-to-wire and never gave the lead back. Quietly dominant. Completely overlooked.
A $100 bet on Reed paid $4,000.
Not bad for someone most people weren’t watching.
Same Odds. Different Years. Augusta Has a Type
Bubba Watson and Danny Willett hit the same number. 50-1. Different years. 2012 and 2016. Two wildly different golfers. Same payout. Same lesson. Augusta has a type and the books keep missing it.
A $100 bet on either one returned $5,000.
Then came Hideki Matsuyama in 2021. At 60-1, he was one of the most underestimated players in the field that week. He became the first Japanese player in history to win The Masters. A moment that stopped an entire nation.
A $100 bet returned $6,000.
The numbers matter. The history matters more.
This Is Where It Gets Absurd
Charl Schwartzel at 100-1 is where things get genuinely absurd. Rory McIlroy held a four-shot lead heading into the final round of the 2011 Masters. Nobody was thinking about Schwartzel. Then he birdied the last four holes. The first time in the tournament’s 75-year history that had ever been done. He walked off with the jacket.
$100 on Schwartzel paid $10,000.
Zach Johnson in 2007 and Angel Cabrera in 2009 both came in at 125-1. Same odds. Two years apart. Augusta was in a mood. The chalk was wrong both times.
Both paid $12,500 on a $100 bet.
Two different years. Two different longshots. Augusta didn’t care who you picked either time
The Longest Shot Augusta Has Ever Seen
And then there’s Trevor Immelman. The biggest longshot on this entire list. The 2008 Masters. 150-1 odds. Nobody was writing about him. Nobody was backing him.
The handful of people who did walked away with $15,000 on a $100 bet.
That’s not a return. That’s a story you tell for the rest of your life.
The next name on this list is out there right now. Warming up on the range at Augusta. Completely ignored by the books. Completely unbothered about it.
The field is set. The odds are live.
Check the latest Masters odds and find your longshot before Thursday.