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For just the fifth time since World War II, golf had four first-time major championship winners in 2016.
Danny Willett (Masters), Dustin Johnson (U.S. Open), Henrik Stenson (British Open) and Jimmy Walker (PGA Championship) all got their maiden major titles, further proof of the depth of talent at the sport’s highest level.
So which golfers have the best chance to break through at the 2017 majors?
Below are the five best bets for first-time major winners, but they’ll have their work cut out for them at Augusta National, Erin Hills, Royal Birkdale and Quail Hollow.
Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy are all eyeing more majors while vying for the No. 1 world ranking. Johnson, Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson have major championship hardware in their trophy cases are bound to be in the mix. Tiger Woods will be back and gunning to inch closer to Jack Nicklaus’s record 18 major titles.
That said, these five players have the talent, experience and confidence to win on golf’s grandest stages:
HIDEKI MATSUYAMA
No player has been hotter over the last several months than the 24-year-old Matsuyama, who has vaulted to No. 6 in the world rankings. After finishing fifth in the season-ending Tour Championship in September, Japan’s Matsuyama has caught fire, his performance as consistent as his metronome-like swing with the distinctive pause at the top. He finished second at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, won two events on the Japan Golf Tour and then rolled to a 7-shot win at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in China. Matsuyama also added a win at the unofficial Target World Challenge, the offseason event hosted by Tiger Woods in the Bahamas that featured a deep lineup of the top-ranked players in the world. Matsuyama is well-positioned to become the first Japanese man to win a major, having had top-10 finishes in all four of them, including his tie for fourth at last year’s PGA Championship. ODDS TO WIN A MAJOR: 9-2
BROOKS KOEPKA
The long-hitting Koepka took a different approach than many of the other top young American stars, beginning his professional career in Europe before becoming a fixture on the PGA Tour. Koepka, 26, is now ranked 16th in the world, coming off a season in which he had seven top-10 finishes in 21 starts, including two runner-up finishes and a tie for fourth place at the PGA Championship. Koepka also finished second two months ago in Las Vegas, his second start of the wraparound 2016-17 season, and is poised for a breakout season. With four top-10 finishes in 13 career major starts, he’s unquestionably a player to watch when the sport’s four biggest weeks roll around. ODDS TO WIN A MAJOR: 9-1
RICKIE FOWLER
2016 was a major disappointment for Fowler, who had four top-10 finishes in his first five starts and then just three more the rest of the year. Fowler was a total non-factor at the majors, missing the cut for weekend play at both the Masters and U.S. Open before tying for 46th at the British Open and 33rd at the PGA Championship. It wasn’t the progress many had hoped to see after 2015, when he notched wins at the Players Championship and during the FedExCup playoffs. Fowler is down to 12th in the world rankings, but remains one of the most popular players in the sport and has the all-around game to compete when it counts the most. This is still a young gun who had top-5 finishes at all four of the majors as recently as 2014, and let’s not forget his first PGA Tour win was in 2012 at Quail Hollow, the site of this year’s PGA Championship. ODDS TO WIN A MAJOR: 10-1