Splash Sports Masters $350K Showdown: Full Strategy Guide

We run through key strategy tips to consider when picking your 8 golfers for the 2025 Splash John Daly x RRG $350K Augusta Showdown.

At Splash Sports, the “John Daly x RRG $350K Augusta Showdown” is a Masters contest where you pick several golfers from different tiers, and the high scorer can win over $100,000.

In addition to the pool prizes for place of finish, every entry is also entered into a drawing to win a free round of golf with John Day and Rick Gehman (of RickRunGood). While that perk will come down to luck of the draw, there are pick strategies you can use to increase your chances of finishing in the money in the main contest.

The John Daly x RRG $350K Augusta Showdown: Format & Payouts

The format of the John Daly x RRG $350K Augusta Showdown (hereafter, “the contest”) is as follows:

• All entries pick eight golfers, one each from among eight different tier groups that will be set by the contest.
• The worst score is excluded, and the top 7 scorers count toward your contest score.
• The scoring is stroke-based compared to par, and a negative number is better, just like real golf.
• Any golfer who withdraws or misses the cut will incur a penalty of 8 points added to their score for every round they miss. So, for example, every golfer who misses the cut will have +16 added to their score (+8 x both weekend rounds).
• The maximum number of contest entries is 3,889 with a maximum of 116 per contestant ($100 per entry).
• The total prize pot of $350,010 is guaranteed, regardless of whether the contest fills.
• First place will receive $100,032, second place $20,003, and third place $10,000. A total of 389 spots will be paid.

Pick Strategies to Consider for the Contest

Our Masters Pool Strategy article covers what to consider when playing in a Majors pool like this. Some of the factors include:

• Knowing the odds for each golfer.
• Consider how your opponents will pick.
• Adjust your picks based on pool size.
• Understanding the scoring rules.

Our Majors & Masters product provides custom analysis for this type of pool and allows you to set up tiers that match those used in your contest. It then shows you each golfer’s expected tier win odds and projected popularity, helping you make the smartest picks possible.

How Contest Size and Payouts Influence Strategy

This is a large field contest; most of the money is concentrated on the top finishers.

If this contest comes close to filling, it will have over 3,000 entries. Over half the prize money is tied up in the top 30 finishers. The only finishers earning five figures or more will be the top three.

That means you need a 1% level outcome just to cash and a top 0.1% (or 1-in-1000) type outcome to hit a big payday.

As a result, we should think a lot more about pick popularity and try to build lineups that can win it all if the key results hit.

How Unique Should You Be in Each Tier?

The contest uses eight tiers: seven with 10 golfers each and a final tier containing the rest of the field. With 95 golfers total, the average popularity is about 10% per golfer in the first seven tiers and around 4% in the final tier.

If you chose a perfectly average golfer in each tier, the odds of someone duplicating your full lineup are roughly 1 in 250 million—so you don’t need to go wild to build a unique entry. Just avoid taking the most popular golfer in every tier.

For example, if you picked a 50%-popular golfer in each of the first seven tiers, your entry would have a 1-in-1,000 chance of being duplicated—way too risky when you’re trying to post a top score, even with a dropped-score rule in play.

Does that mean you should avoid popular golfers? Not at all. You can still mix in 2–3 chalky picks, especially if they’re strong values within their tier. Just be sure to balance them with more unique options in the other tiers.

Even a lineup with three 50% picks and five more contrarian choices is still only 1-in-a-million to be duplicated.

How the Cut Rule Should Influence Strategy

Let’s face it: the entries that finish near the top in this contest will likely have seven golfers make the cut, with strong relative finishes on Sunday. Since only the top 50 and ties advance at Augusta, nearly half the field will miss the cut, creating plenty of land mines to dodge in each tier.

Last year, Scottie Scheffler dominated at -11, beating Ludvig Aberg by four strokes and finishing at least seven ahead of anyone else. Yet in this scoring format, the penalty for a missed cut (16 strokes) was larger than the gap between Scheffler and the players tied for 30th. In other words, avoiding missed cuts matters as much—if not more—than picking the winner.

Avoiding Missed Cuts

We can’t predict the cut with certainty, but we can improve our odds. The best way to avoid disaster is by selecting golfers with better odds and higher ratings within their tiers. Our research shows that picking one of the top three golfers in a tier significantly reduces the chance of a poor score compared to choosing someone from the bottom three.

Even with one mulligan (you can drop your worst score), your goal should be to stack as many small edges as possible.

When looking to avoid missed cuts, find golfers that are:

• Top-tier odds value, even if they’re popular
• Above-average odds within a tier combined with below-average popularity

Blending those elements helps you maximize cut-making potential and create a lineup with enough uniqueness to stand out from the field—especially when popular picks bust.

Tiers For John Daly x RRG $350K Augusta Showdown

Finally, here are the tiers for the contest. The rankings identified are our “Strokes Gained” golfer rankings. However, those will be far less reliable on LIV golfers (so we also use betting market data to set their relative position) and could include results from before an injury or periods of absence due to injury, which could negatively impact a golfer’s rating.

Tier 1

Golfer	Rank
Scottie Scheffler	1
Rory McIlroy	2
Jon Rahm	3
Collin Morikawa	4
Xander Schauffele	6
Bryson DeChambeau	7
Justin Thomas	8
Brooks Koepka	10
Hideki Matsuyama	16
Ludvig Aberg	17

• Scottie Scheffler is the favorite in this group, as the most consistent performer out of Augusta in Tier 1.
• Ludvig Aberg has been inconsistent lately, so his ranking has dropped, but he did win at the Genesis this spring.
• Xander Schauffele is working back from an injury that kept him out most of the first two months.

Tier 2

Golfer	Rank
Russell Henley	5
Tommy Fleetwood	9
Patrick Cantlay	11
Shane Lowry	12
Joaquin Niemann	13
Tyrell Hatton	15
Cameron Smith	20
Viktor Hovland	25
Min Woo Lee	27
Jordan Spieth	87

• Russell Henley won this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, his biggest career win.
• Jordan Spieth’s ranking is very low, but that includes many of his poor results over the last year, prior to his wrist surgery last August, and his form has been getting better of late.

Tier 3

Golfer	Rank
Corey Conners	14
Robert MacIntyre	18
Sepp Straka	19
Sergio Garcia	31
Jason Day	33
Wyndham Clark	36
Akshay Bhatia	39
Tony Finau	43
Will Zalatoris	50
Tom Kim	72

• Sepp Straka and Corey Conners have been playing pretty well early in 2025, so they have moved inside our Top 20.
• Tom Kim had high expectations entering the year, but he has dropped over 30 spots in our player rankings since the start of 2025 (only one top 30 finish in nine starts).

Tier 4

Golfer	Rank
Aaron Rai	22
Keegan Bradley	26
Sung-Jae Im	28
Dustin Johnson	29
Patrick Reed	40
Phil Mickelson	44
Daniel Berger	49
Brian Harman	61
Sahith Theegala	73
Justin Rose	90

• The veteran Masters winner/LIV golfer tier has Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, and Dustin Johnson.
• Keegan Bradley will serve as Ryder Cup Captain later in the year but has put together a strong 2025 at age 38.
• Sahith Theegala (only one Top 30 finish in 10 starts in 2025) is another golfer who will try to turn things around at Augusta.
• Aaron Rai posted good results last month at The Players Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational but will be making his Masters debut.

Tier 5

Golfer	Rank
Taylor Pendrith	23
J.J. Spaun	24
Sam Burns	30
Lucas Glover	32
Adam Scott	35
Maverick McNealy	37
Davis Thompson	41
Billy Horschel	52
Byeong-Hun An	55
Matt Fitzpatrick	85

• Veteran J.J. Spaun has been putting together one of the best seasons of his career. He finished second at the Cognizant Classic and then lost in a playoff to Rory McIlroy for The Players Championship.

Tier 6

Golfer	Rank
Denny McCarthy	21
Michael Kim	34
Max Greyserman	58
Stephan Jaeger	60
Harris English	64
Thomas Detry	67
Laurie Canter	68
Rasmus Hojgaard	78
Nicolai Hojgaard	128
Cameron Young	130

• The Hojgaard twins (Nicolai and Rasmus) get paired together in this tier, but both rank near the bottom in our rankings for golfers here.
• Michael Kim experienced a career resurgence in 2025, with three Top 10 finishes so far.

Tier 7

Golfer	Rank
J.T. Poston	45
Joe Highsmith	46
Christiaan Bezuidenhout	69
Nick Taylor	75
Tom Hoge	77
Austin Eckroat	84
Nico Echavarria	97
Chris Kirk	113
Cam Davis	121
Max Homa	156

• Joe Highsmith won the Cognizant Classic this March to qualify for his first Masters appearance.
• Max Homa finished third at Augusta last year but has been struggling and enters with five straight missed cuts.

Tier 8

Golfer	Rank	Golfer	Rank
Charl Schwartzel	59	Danny Willett	277
Kevin Yu	83	Rafael Campos	334
Matt McCarty	119	Justin Hastings	386
Jhonattan Vegas	133	Jose Luis Ballester	389
Zach Johnson	136	Mike Weir	398
Bubba Watson	144	Bernhard Langer	451
Nick Dunlap	147	Hiroshi Tai	467
Mathieu Pavon	180	Fred Couples	483
Patton Kizzire	182	Jose Maria Olazabal	489
Thriston Lawrence	200	Noah Kent	493
Davis Riley	215	Angel Cabrera
Adam Schenk	222	Evan Beck
Brian Campbell	231

• The final tier has quite the range of golfers in our rankings, including two (amateur Evan Beck and veteran Angel Cabrera) who have not appeared in our rankings yet.
• Mathieu Pavon and Adam Schenk (both tied for 12th last year) have this group’s best recent finishes.
• Matt McCarty, Davis Riley, and Kevin Yu have been in the best recent form of this group on Tour, though all will be among the large group of golfers making their debut at the Masters in 2025.