It’s finally Masters week, folks. The top golfers from both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf will tee off on Thursday in the first major championship of 2024 — and the first time the two leagues have competed together this year. Both PGA and LIV golfers make up the top five favorites in the odds as of Monday, with Scottie Scheffler unsurprisingly in the top spot.

Scheffler won it in 2022, while Jon Rahm won last year, months before his December announcement that he had joined LIV Golf. The top storylines going into this year’s tournament include:

• Scottie’s dominance thus far, while other big names have yet to make significant waves this year.
• Can Rory McIlroy complete a career grand slam? This was a question at last year’s Masters, too. Only five other golfers have done it.
• Can Rahm repeat? It would be the first time a current LIV golfer wins the Masters.
• Will five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods set a Masters record by making the cut for the 24th consecutive time?

The famous names top the headlines, but here are value picks for your Masters pool. Here’s how it works: One player is selected one player from each tier of 10 inside the Official World Golf Rankings top 50. Masters fantasy picks will be noted as well in parenthesis.

Let’s get to the picks!

Tier 1 (1-10) | Ludvig Åberg (International)

It’s very tempting to select the top-ranked player, Scheffler, who I went with as my past champion pick in the Masters fantasy game. He’s been on a tear since switching putters ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational — winning twice and finishing a stroke away from forcing a playoff at the Texas Children’s Houston Open. But we’ll go with the new kid on the block in WGR’s No. 9 Ludvig Åberg.

Åberg, 24, has logged three top-10 finishes this season and was in position to push for his second PGA Tour win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am before weather led to the final round being canceled.

He turned pro in 2023 and has already picked up a win on the tour and climbed into the top 10 of the World Golf Rankings. Since the start of the year, he ranks second among tour players with 1.72 true strokes gained per round, according to datagolf.com.

He joined the tour with a reputation as a winner. While at Texas Tech, he became the seventh player to earn all three National Player of the Year Awards.

Åberg will be vying to become the first player since Fuzzy Zoeller (1979) to win the Masters in his debut.

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Tier 2 (11-20) | Sahith Theegala (United States)

Theegala finished ninth at last year’s Masters after a strong final round that saw him shoot 5-under. That charge gave him a total of 2.88 true strokes gained at Augusta, which ranks second to Will Zalatoris among the field of players at this year’s Masters.

Aside from the confidence that playing so well during his debut should provide, Theegala’s game has improved and the numbers back that.

Theegala’s 1.77 true strokes gained this year is up from .91 over the same stretch in 2023, per datagolf.com. That jump is showing in his results. He totaled eight top-10 finishes in 2023, including ninth at the Masters. Theegala already has four top-10 finishes this year.

Tier 3 (21-30) | Russell Henley (Wild card)

Most of these picks were made before last weekend’s Valero Texas Open, where Henley finished fourth and climbed six spots to No. 17 in the WGR. This past weekend’s result was his third top-five finish of the season and second in his last three events.

He also finished tied for fourth at last year’s Masters, where he finished the event with 3.31 true strokes gained.

The form he’s found this season, coupled with the success he’s had at Augusta — four top-25 finishes in seven starts — have made it hard not to stick with this pick even though he’s officially not in this tier.

If the rules of your pool won’t allow it, Sam Burns is a good pick at this tier. Burns has flashed top-level play this season, particularly during a stretch of four straight top-10 finishes.

Tier 4 (31-40) | Akshay Bhatia

The original pick at this tier was bumped down after Bhatia’s dramatic win this past weekend catapulted him 53 spots up the rankings and into his Masters debut.

Bhatia is on fire right now. Counting the win, he’s finished in the top 25 in his last three events, a sharp contrast from his previous three tournaments where he missed the cut.

Perhaps more importantly, Bhatia displayed mental toughness in his win. He entered the final round of the Valero with a five-shot lead but found himself needing a birdie at the final hole to force a playoff with Denny McCarthy. McCarthy birdied seven straight holes on the back nine as part of his charge to erase Bhatia’s lead, but the 22-year-old was able to find the shots he needed to secure the win. That level of focus should serve him well at Augusta.

Tier 5 (41-50) | Harris English

While English has been a bit of a U.S. Open specialist (three top-10 finishes in his last four), he hasn’t enjoyed the same success at the Masters.

But there’s cause for optimism, as he’s in much better form heading into this year’s major. English has finished in the top 25 in six of his nine events this season. He hasn’t had a run like this since 2021, when he won the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the Travelers Championship.

(Photo illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Harry How, Brennan Asplen, David Cannon via Getty)