It is match play this week at the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play event, with Rory McIlroy a slight favorite. McIlroy is coming off a very impressive win last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and he is the top choice at odds of +600. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson is the second choice in the betting at odds of +700. Keep in mind that this tournament begins on Wednesday with round-robin matches. Let’s look at the odds and predictions for the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play event.
WGC Dell Technologies Match Play Odds
Rory McIlroy +600
Dustin Johnson +700
Justin Thomas +900
Jason Day +1100
Jon Rahm +1250
Jordan Spieth +1400
Paul Casey +1900
Patrick Reed +2500
Sergio Garcia +2500
Phil Mickelson +2600
Hideki Matsuyama +3000
Tommy Fleetwood +3000
Alex Noren +3500
Bubba Watson +4000
Marc Leishman +4000
Tyrrell Hatton +4000
Branden Grace +5500
Thomas Pieters +5500
Xander Schauffele +5500
Louis Oosthuizen +6000
Patrick Cantlay +6000
Kiradech Aphibarnrat +6500
Tony Finau +6500
Gary Woodland +7000
Kevin Chappell +7000
Matt Kuchar +7000
Brian Harman +7500
Daniel Berger +7500
Dylan Frittelli +7500
Rafa Cabrera Bello +7500
Zach Johnson +7500
Luke List +8000
Shubhankar Sharma +8000
Adam Hadwin +9000
Charley Hoffman +9000
Keegan Bradley +9500
Pat Perez +9500
Patton Kizzire +9500
Webb Simpson +9500
Brendan Steele +10000
Haotong Li +10000
Kyle Stanley +10000
Ian Poulter +11000
Cameron Smith +12000
Charl Schwartzel +12000
Charles Howell III +12000
Chez Reavie +12000
Francesco Molinari +12000
Ross Fisher +12000
Russell Henley +12000
Kevin Kisner +13000
Kevin Na +13000
Bernd Wiesberger +15000
Jason Dufner +15000
Joost Luiten +15000
Matthew Fitzpatrick +15000
Si Woo Kim +16000
James Hahn +17000
Alexander Levy +18000
Jhonattan Vegas +18000
Peter Uihlein +18000
Yusaku Miyazato +21000
Satoshi Kodaira +23000
Yuta Ikeda +25000
Odds Analysis
This event changed in 2015 to a different format that begins with pool play. There are 16 groups of four players who play round-robin matches on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The top 16 seeded players headline each of the 16 groups, with the remaining 48 players placed into each group. The winners of each of the 16 groups advance to single-elimination matches on the weekend, with the round of 16 and quarterfinals on Saturday, while the semifinals, final and consolation match take place on Sunday.
Five former champions of this tournament are in the field, Johnson, McIlroy, Kuchar, Poulter and Day. A total of 59 of the world’s top 64 players are in the field. Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Rickie Fowler, Adam Scott and Henrik Stenson are not playing. Day will be looking to win his third WGC Match Play title in five tries, as he won in 2014 and 2016.
Rory McIlroy +600
There is no question that Rory turned the corner last week, as he played great to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but I almost never take a player to win in consecutive weeks and I am not taking Rory as the favorite against this field.
Dustin Johnson +700
I am surprised that Johnson is not favored this week. He played 112 holes in last year’s event and never trailed in any match. Johnson’s length will dominate this course and I expect him to have a good chance to win this weekend.
Justin Thomas +900
I think Thomas is the best player in the world and it would not be a surprise at all to see him win, but I don’t know that he will be entirely focused on a match play event with the Masters just around the corner. Thomas is good enough to win anywhere, but I think these odds are a bit too low.
Jason Day +1100
I think Day has some value at these odds, as he won this event in 2016 and he comes in playing well. He said that he loves match play and that he is really looking forward to this event. "Match play is my favorite format because you only have focus on beating one player at a time and I thrive on the head-to-head competition."
Jon Rahm +1250
Rahm played really well in this event a year ago but couldn’t quite beat Johnson in the final. Rahm definitely has the length to take advantage of this course and it would not be a surprise to see him in the mix on the weekend again.
Patrick Reed +2500
My longshot this week is Reed who finally seems to be getting it back together. He has always loved match play and I think he has some good value at these odds of +2500.
Course: Austin Country Club is a par 71 that measures 7,108 yards. It is a course designed by Pete Dye and features pot bunkers and a lot of high risk, high reward holes. All four of the par 5’s are reachable in two and there is also a drivable par 4. The greens are Bermuda, so putting will be a big key this week.
TV Coverage: NBC and Golf Channel
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Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker.eu. The WGC Dell Technologies Match Play is scheduled for March 21-25, 2018. Austin Country Club will host the event and NBC and Golf Channel will televise it.