Finally. It’s here. Masters Week. Let’s get after it!

As always I’m here to give a brief history of the course and tournament. Frank will be giving you all a more in depth look at individual holes. A ton of other great articles are on the way this week so be on the lookout.

The Masters

• Date: April 5th – April 8th, 2018
• Course: Augusta National
• Watch on: ESPN, CBS, Masters.com
• Purse: $11,000,000
• Winner’s Share: $1,980,000
• 2017 Winner: Sergio Garcia

Amen Corner. Magnolia Lane. The Green Jacket. The Champions Dinner. The Par 3 Contest. And so much more. The traditions associated with The Masters are simply second to none. It all began in 1930 when Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts acquired the land used to shape Augusta National. The first Masters Tournament was played in 1934.

Augusta National Golf Club was designed by Jones and course architect Alister MacKenzie. It plays at Par 72 with about 7,400 yards of length.

The Field

I mean come on. Tiger, Phil, DJ, JT, Jordan, Rory, Rickie, Day, etc. As always, the best of the best are headed to Augusta. But this year just feels kind of different. I’m not sure I can remember a time with this much anticipation headed into Masters Week. Tiger is (almost?) back. Phil just won. JT is on fire. DJ is coming for redemption. Poulter just snuck his way into the tournament. The story lines are endless. Get me to Thursday ASAP.

As for assembling the field, the Masters is the most exclusive major championship. This year’s field will consist of only 87 players. There are 19 different ways to receive an invitation to the Masters (which can be seen below). The Masters Committee will occasionally provide special exemptions to golfers who do not meet any of the 19 criteria. This year Shubhankar Sharma made the field via this special exemption.

• Masters Tournament Champions (lifetime)
• US Open champions (five years)
• British Open champions (five years)
• PGA Championship champions (five years)
• Winners of The Players (three years)
• Current Olympic Gold Medalist (one year)
• Current US Amateur champion and runner-up
• Current British Amateur champion
• Current Asia-Pacific champion
• Current US Mid-Amateur champion
• Current Latin America Amateur champion
• The first 12 players, including ties, in the previous year’s Masters Tournament
• The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s US Open
• The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s British Open
• The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year’s PGA Championship
• Winners of PGA Tour regular-season and playoff events, starting with the RBC Heritage the week after the Masters to the Houston Open the week beforehand (see Poulter)
• Those qualifying for the previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship (top 30 in FedEx Cup prior to tournament)
• The 50 leaders on the Final Official World Golf Ranking for the previous calendar year
• The 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the current Masters Tournament

Below are the current betting odds for this year’s tournament. We will give picks for Draft Kings and Tier-based pools throughout the week on this site.