Golfbet recap: Five betting takeaways from Rory McIlroy’s 2025 Masters victory

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The demons have been slayed.

It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy and it certainly wasn’t predictable. But in the end, Rory McIlroy did enough – just enough – to win the 2025 Masters Tournament and complete the elusive final leg of the career Grand Slam.

McIlroy’s emotional display after holing a birdie to defeat Justin Rose on the first hole of a playoff was understandable, given the heartbreak he has endured both here and in the other three majors over the last decade-plus.

Here are five observations for bettors to consider as McIlroy heads out of Augusta wearing his long-awaited green jacket:

Rory McIlroy, not Scottie Scheffler, will be the man to beat in the remaining majors of 2025.

If 2024 belonged to Scheffler, 2025 is more than tilting towards McIlroy. The Ulsterman now has three victories this year, none more historic than Sunday’s triumph, and he’s heading to some of his favorite venues later this summer. Next month the PGA Championship returns to Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he has won four times including last year, and The Open returns to his native Northern Ireland and Royal Portrush in July. Even the U.S. Open at Oakmont, where he missed the cut in 2016, should suit the tee-to-green form he currently possesses.

Scheffler has been the alpha in the biggest events for more than a year, but that dynamic has now flipped on its head. McIlroy almost instantly became the consensus betting favorite for both the PGA and The Open, and he’s barely behind Scheffler in early U.S. Open markets. He may not win another major this year, but he’ll likely be where the discussion begins.

Ludvig Åberg is going to win a major – and soon.

Look past the bunker woes on the 72nd hole, as a triple bogey dropped Åberg from T3 to solo seventh place. The Swede put forth a gallant rally, briefly tying for the lead before McIlroy’s birdie on No. 11. His performance comes on the heels of last year’s runner-up as a Masters debutant, and Åberg now has three top-12 finishes in five career major starts.

Åberg is already a winner this year on TOUR, and he’s clearly comfortable on the biggest stages. What’s more, he displayed a complete game and showed little signs of the consecutive missed cuts that plagued him at TPC Sawgrass and TPC San Antonio. Åberg is now the third favorite on the updated odds board for the PGA Championship, behind only McIlroy and Scheffler, and he’s unlikely to drop anytime soon.

If Xander Schauffele returns to his 2024 form, the roots will extend back to Augusta.

Schauffele has been a shell of his former self this year as he has rehabbed from a rib injury, and an opening-round 73 put a dent in his green jacket aspirations. But he followed that with three straight rounds under par en route to a T8 finish, closing the week at 5 under. It’s the first significant sign this year that he may soon return to the form that earned him two major trophies last summer.

In an effort to zig while others are zagging, the next few weeks may be a “buy low” opportunity on Schauffele, who will go for two straight PGA Championship titles at Quail Hollow – where he narrowly lost to McIlroy last year. McIlroy is going to get a lion’s share of the attention heading to Charlotte (and beyond), and Scheffler’s fourth-place showing at Augusta National proved that he’s still going to be a prominent factor in the majors. But Schauffele still possesses all the shots, and now he may be edging back toward a clean bill of health. After starting the year as the second favorite in the majors behind Scheffler, he’s now out to +1700 for Quail Hollow. Should Schauffele build upon the progress he made this week, he’s not going to be the fourth- or fifth-best choice on the major odds boards for very long.

Bryson DeChambeau’s short game will continue to make him a major factor.

The takeaway from the 2025 Masters for DeChambeau is not that he let the green jacket slip away with a final-round 75, it’s that his short game was good enough to get him into the final pairing on Sunday. DeChambeau’s iron play was all over the map this week at Augusta National, and it proved too big of a burden for him to overcome. His Strokes Gained: Approach numbers were below water through 54 holes, and watery approaches on Nos. 11 and 15 ultimately ended his title hopes.

But the short game that at one point was a detriment to his game proved a brilliant asset this week, as he continued to scramble from points far and wide. It’s the same asset that helped deliver a U.S. Open title over McIlroy last year at Pinehurst, and DeChambeau has now finished T6 or better in four of the last five majors. Once known primarily for his brawn off the tee, he’s becoming an increasingly well-rounded player – one who shows a penchant for the major spotlight and will likely be in the mix again before too long on one of the game’s biggest stages.

In-play betting offers greater opportunities when variance increases in majors.

As McIlroy showed, winning isn’t easy. Yes, Tiger Woods and others have shown over the years that it’s possible to win a major in methodical or runaway fashion. But by and large, there are going to be moments when leaders falter or contenders surge – and bettors can use that information to their advantage.

Justin Rose has now lost the Masters in a playoff twice, but this most recent runner-up came from the clouds. Rose was +25000 to begin the final round, when he teed off seven shots behind McIlroy. He ballooned back to that price during the final round, and he was still available above 100-to-1 well into the second nine before McIlroy faltered across Amen Corner.

Even winning tickets on McIlroy, who went off in the +650 neighborhood pre-tournament, were available at +1200 after his opening-round 72 and nearly twice that price as an in-play grab during the second round, as he trailed by seven shots through 27 holes.

It can be easy to assume that the players in the lead will stay there, but as we saw Sunday the hands can get shaky in crunch time – even for the best in the world.