WGC Match-Play Championship Value Picks

Where: Austin Country Club

Watch: Golf Channel, NBC

When: March 22-26

The PGA Tour begins a quick Texas two-step this week with the final playing of the World Golf Championship match-play tournament at the Austin Country Club.
An exclusive field of 64 players that includes eight of the World Golf Rankings’ top nine will bracket up for pieces of another $20 million purse, including $3,5 million, 550 FedEx Cup points, and the Walter Hagen Cup to the winner.

Last week Taylor Moore birdied four of his last ten holes on Sunday to win the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook in Florida. In picking up his first career PGA Tour victory, Moore also provided his financial backers with a tasty payout of +5000 on Bovada’s weekly PGA betting board.

Adam Schenk, who was tied for the lead going into 18 on Sunday, took a bogey and placed second; Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Spieth, who was also tied for the lead late but faltered, tied for third; Wyndham Clark finished fifth; two-time defending Valspar champion Sam Burns took sixth; Matt Wallace, Cody Gribble, and Webb Simpson tied for seventh; and Erik van Rooyen, Justin Thomas, Nick Taylor, JT Poston, Zac Blair, and Patton Kizzire tied for tenth.

We swung and missed with our betting picks for last week’s Valspar Championship, Justin Suh, David Lingmerth, and Adam Hadwin. Lingmerth finished T-27 with a 75 on Sunday; Suh finished T-45; and Hadwin, who opened with a 69, missed the cut by shooting 76 on Friday.

The Austin Country Club, home to this unique WGC event since 2016, plays to a par-71 at around 7,100 yards. And the wind tends to blow around those parts around this time of the year.

Last year Scottie Scheffler beat Kevin Kisner 4&3 to win the championship match of the WGC Match-Play. Two years ago, Billy Horschel beat Scheffler 2&1 to win the title. Four years ago – the event was canceled in 2020 – Kevin Kisner beat Matt Kuchar 3&2 for the win. And five years ago, Bubba Watson beat Kisner 7&6 to take the title.

So Scheffler and Kisner own the best recent track records at this WGC championship.

Each week we take a look at the online betting sites and highlight what we believe to be some of the best values on the board, with a few free picks to click. Odds to win and pairings for this week can be found at Bovada. Here’s our take on some of the field for this week’s WGC Match-Play Championship.

The format for this event begins with 16 foursomes playing round-robin matches the first three days, with one player qualifying into a 16-player bracket. So bettors will want to know who comprises those initial foursomes because only one of them will advance to the final 16.

Defending WGC Match-Play champion Scheffler tops the betting on Bovada’s weekly “win” board at +800. Jon Rahm sits as the second choice at +1100, followed by Rory McIlroy at +1400 and Patrick Cantlay at +1800. From there everybody else is getting at least +2000.

Kevin Kisner +5000 to win

There’s no getting around Kisner’s track record at this event; two runner-ups and a win over the last four tournaments. So he certainly seems to have a knack for this style of play. Kisner is lined at +350 in a foursome against Max Homa (+140), Hideki Matsuyama (+275), and Justin Suh (+350), but to us, that looks like a wide-open affair. Kisner’s not playing great as of late, missing the cut four of his last five times out, but he’s better than that. So 50/1 just looks too good to pass up.

Billy Horschel +8000 to win

Horschel also isn’t exactly going great as of late, missing the cut four of his last six times out, but he’s also better than that. And he won this event two years ago. Horschel’s lined at +400 in a group against Rahm (+105), Rickie Fowler (+350), and Keith Mitchell (+375), and while Rahm still might be the best player in the world, he’s also struggling just a bit as of late. If Horschel can just win a couple of matches within his round-robin, he’d have about as good a chance as anybody to reach Sunday.

Nick Taylor +12500 to win

Canadian Taylor owns four top-10 finishes this season, including a second at the Phoenix Open five weeks ago and a T-10 last week at the Valspar. Taylor is lined at +400 against a group of Cantlay (+110), Brian Harman (+300), and KH Lee (+400), but that also looks like a wide-open affair. Again, if he can just win a couple of his first three matches, Taylor could be a very tempting wagering opportunity at odds of 125/1.

Elsewhere among Bovada’s WGC Match-Play offerings, Cantlay and Sungjae Im are paired at +1000 on the “two chances” board, and Im, Rahm, and Collin Morikowa are teamed at +500 on the “three chances” board.

The first group for this WGC Match-Play Championship goes off Wednesday morning at 9:30 local time, 10:30 am ET. Bet your PGA predictions for FREE this month by scoring a 100% REAL CASH bonus on your first deposit of $100 to $500 when you use bonus promo code PREDICTEM at Betnow Sportsbook!