Ahead of the 2022 Masters, oddschecker podcast host George Elek sat down with golf analyst Duncan Carey to discuss tournament predictions.

Starting the podcast, Elek addressed how people are trying to pinpoint the potential Augusta winner:

“There are a lot of myths around what is needed to win at Augusta, what is important, what people should be looking for in terms of profile of the player when looking for their selections,” Elek said.

“Having crunched the numbers and with all of your experience as well working with players, what do you think are the most important things to lookout when trying to find the winner of that Green Jacket?”

Duncan Carey then replied: “I think this probably gathers more attention from casual golfers, and people aren’t going to stay up to watch the final round of the Valeria Texas. They would definitely be watching the full week of the Masters. And everyone knows the course, I think that leads into what’s important around Augusta.

“Firstly, sort of knowing the course and course experience. Sergio and Hideki in the last few years it was their tenth or more time playing that, so experience definitely bears out. People say it’s the easiest major to win.

“I’m not sure if I agree but it’s definitely a smaller field because it’s a field of about 90 players to start with, but also you’ve got previous winners in there who can play, some amateur players who are likely to do well. So in actual fact, you’ve probably got to beat 40 or 50 guys to win the Green Jacket.

Carey then concluded: “Probably the most important thing is the approach play really. You need to be hitting your irons well.”

Elek also referred to the expected weather conditions, as this is something expected to affect each player’s performance: “How do you think that the conditions are to be looking like they’re going to be over the course this weekend, and what kind of player could that suit?”

Duncan replied: “It’s firm and dry at the moment, which would probably favour the better players. I think driving distance comes a bit more into play when the course is softer. I think Augusta is one of those courses but when it’s soft and a bit wet I think it plays probably quite a bit easier as was shown with Dustin Johnson in November.”