M7 2026 The Masters - Ready for the off

Welcome to Augusta. It's the first M7 of the year. We've all spent our winnings (in our head) already. But the reality is the majority of us will leave disappointed

Full picks are in the email I sent and are attached here.

Please check your own entry is correct. Any objections please raise before tee off. N.B. "My picks are sh*t" is not a valid objection - that is your own fault

An important note: There will be no live M7 scoring for The Masters this year as I am travelling. Alastair 'Baloney' Loney will be doing his best to provide updates as we go but no guarantees

There's 99 of us going for the big prizes (+ our good friends Control and Wisdom). Patrick 'Ned' Kelly came back into the M7 fold (last time he played was something like 2014) but clearly didn't remember that you actually have to pick some golfers as he hasn't submitted

Prizes (TBC)

1st - S$5000

2nd - S$2800

3rd - S$1600

Best of Rest (<5 make cut) - S$600

Lets get this out the way. The following have no chance whatsoever:

• Marcus 'Dicky' Davies as they won The Open in 2025b (no one wins back to back M7s - except Todd 'Ronald' McDonald once )

• Simon 'Toasty' French / Ron 'Burgundy' Goding winners of last year's Masters (no one successfully defends an M7 championship)

What does it take to win M7?

The Masters average winning score is 42 points (but over last few years it has been 35)

Who picked who?

62 different players picked which is 67% of the field (with the lower field numbers, Masters picks are always bunched).

As usual though you haven't checked who is actually playing and Niemann, Finau, Wallace, Puig, Fowler and Hisatsune aren't, so it makes it 56 different valid players, 62% of the field

8 of you are are already playing M6 (including an invalid Clark pick in >75 category).

1 of you is playing M5

There are 8 popular picks with 30 or more picks but there isn't a single player with more than 59. The popular names are Brooks (59), Bryson (52), Aberg (48), Rahm (44), Scottie (41), Conners (35), Spieth (34), Scott (33) and Knapp (32)

32 of you have the most popular 2 all in your team (Brooks, Bryson)

12 of you have the most popular 3 all in your team (Brooks, Bryson, Aberg)

None of you have more than 3 in your team (never seen this!), mainly due to the fact Bryson and Rahm share a category. So whilst the picks are bunched there is more variance than normal in a Masters.

Norman's (Wisdom) team is Scheffler, Aberg, Bryson, Hatton, Conners, Spieth and Koepka.....No one has the same exact same 7 although (cough) Justin 'Tally' Price has 6 / 7 (no Aberg for full house)

15 valid unique picks in all - not to be sniffed at in the Masters. Matt 'Smithy' Smith only one with 2 (Morikawa and S W Kim)

However most 'off the wall' team (the team with the fewest combined picks) goes to Tim 'Nadia' Spragg (M W Lee, Penge, Rose, Matsuyama, Smith, Day and Scott - for a combined 99 picks)

Zach Johnson is the highest ranked OWGR player (314) picked - Simon 'Toasty' French has him

What about the LIV splitters?

Only 10 LIV players in the field this year. All of them have at lest one pick

They account for 32% of all picks

4 of you have swerved LIV completely - Ben 'Emma' Dale, Braydon 'Bend it like' Barcham and Trev 'Super Trev' Haeger

Speed and Uncertainty Fastest finger - Well done Justin 'Tally' Price

Most entries - Tommy 'Hawk' Hawker with 7 Leaving it to last minute - Rene 'Cheech & Chong' with 3 mins to spare!

Best of luck!!

Remember no live scoring for this one - but Baloney will keep you up to date if he can. If you are not on the whatsapp group please join as likely to be more updates in there

21 is the M7 record score to beat set at the PGA in 2024 by Bill 'You're 'avin a' Lafferrandre III but of course lets not forget the best record of the lot - John 'Cliff' Talbot Snr’s even more incredible record of 500 pts

Reminder - "You can't win M7 on the first day but you sure as hell can lose it" - Alastair 'Baloney' Loney