Our golf tips for the first major of the season ahead of the first round of the 2026 Masters.
The golfing greats return to Augusta this week, with the first Major of the year getting underway on Thursday.
The Masters always delivers spectacular golf and plenty of drama, with this year’s tournament potentially more wide-open than we’ve had for some time.
Getting a good start can’t win you the Green Jacket, but it can put you in contention, with everyone in the field hoping they can shoot under par on day one.
In this article, we suggest three potential first-round leader bets to consider ahead of the first tee-time at around 12:30pm UK time.
Here are our three golf betting first-round selections for the first major of the year.
First-round Leader Tips
Tip 1 – Ludvig Aberg @ 22/1
It’s often said that some players are suited to Augusta and that certainly looks to apply to European Ryder Cup star Ludvig Aberg.
The Swede finished second on his Masters debut in 2024, before following that up with a seventh-place spot 12 months ago.
Aberg’s first-ever tournament round at the famous course saw him card a one-over-par 73, and he has since played the next 126 holes in 14-under-par.
The 26-year-old was in a tie for second after round one in 2025, firing an opening day 68 to leave him three shots back of early leader Justin Rose.
Aberg heads to Augusta this time off the back of a T5 finish at the Texas Open last week, where he carded back-to-back rounds of 67 over the first two days.
Tip 2 – Nicolai Hojgaard @ 50/1
Nicolai Hojgaard also made his Masters debut back in 2024, when he finished T15, having played the third round alongside eventual winner Scottie Scheffler.
The Dane started with a five-under-par 67 two years ago and although he has been over-par in his five Augusta rounds since then, he will go into this year’s event with renewed confidence.
Hojgaard is now playing full-time on the PGA Tour and has enjoyed an impressive season to date – making the cut in all seven events played and claiming three top-10 finishes along the way.
The 25-year-old carded rounds of 68-62-63-71 when finishing second at last month’s Houston Open and is currently ranked fourth in scoring stats on Tour.
Tip 3 – Daniel Berger @ 66/1
The last five years have been plagued by injury issues for Daniel Berger, but he’s already shown this season that he can still be a contender on the PGA Tour.
Whether he can put four solid rounds together at Augusta remains to be seen, but he is certainly capable of making a fast start.
Berger finished T10 on his Masters debut in 2016 and has had two top-30 finishes at Augusta since then, including a T21 spot last year.
The man from Florida shot an opening round 71 in 2025 and in eight starts this year, he has started with sub-70 rounds in five events.
That includes a 63 in last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational and the 32-year-old Berger finds himself well inside the PGA Tour average score line for 2026.
