2023 WGC Match Play Odds & Picks

Scottie Scheffler won in his home state of Texas last year at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event and took over the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking. After trading the top spot as of late with Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, Scheffler is again in the top spot as he returns to Austin for the PGA Tour’s version of “March Madness.” Here are the 2023 WGC Match Play Odds.

The event dates back to 1999, and Tiger Woods holds the record with three wins in this tournament. Jason Day, who has won it twice, is the only multi-time winner in this year’s field of 64. Interestingly, three of last year’s top eight—Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Abraham Ancer—are ineligible due to their play on the LIV Golf tour.

The Course

Since 2016, the WGC-Match Play has been held at the Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. The club was founded in 1899, and the course used for this tournament was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1984. It’s a risk vs. reward course that often features windy conditions.

Most of the course is dry, but the signature 17^th hole is a par 5 that has water by the double-tiered green. It’s reachable in two, but the second shot needs to be perfect to avoid water or an unfavorable part of the green.

WGC Match Play Format

The format features 64 golfers who are split into 16 groups of four. Those four play a round-robin format against each other on Wednesday through Friday with a win being worth one point, a tie being worth a half point, and a loss giving no points. The winner of each group goes into a final bracket of 16 golfers. The round of 16 and quarterfinals are played on Saturday, and the semifinals, third-place playoff, and finals are contested on Sunday.

2023 WGC Match Play Favored Picks

Scheffler Favored to Stay Hot in Austin

Not only has Scottie Scheffler (+900) won twice in his last four starts, he’s also the defending champion of this event and finished runner-up in 2021. That’s a combination of current form and course history that is tough to beat. Scheffler lost to Billy Horschel in the 2021 final before beating Kevin Kisner in last year’s championship match, 4 & 3.

The other two favorites are coming off rough finishes to the Florida Swing. Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy, both at +1200, weren’t around for the weekend at The Players Championship. Rahm withdrew due to illness, and McIlroy missed the cut. Rahm led at Bay Hill after round one the week prior before falling off, and McIlroy finished runner-up in Orlando. The Northern Irishman won this event in 2015 in the final year before it moved to Austin; Rahm owns a runner-up finish in 2017 to Dustin Johnson.

2023 WGC Match Play Other Contenders

Patrick Cantlay (+1500)

Patrick Cantlay is in good form but has never gotten out of the group stage in this event. The 2021 FedEx Cup champ was 19^th at TPC Sawgrass and has two top-five finishes prior to that (fourth at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and third at The Genesis Invitational).

Collin Morikawa (+1800)

Collin Morikawa made it to the round of 16 last year and has three top-10 finishes in 2023. Jordan Spieth, also at +1800, had a good chance to win last week at the Valspar Championship before bogeying two of the final three holes. He hasn’t been the best at this event, however, reaching the round of 16 just two times and not advancing out of group play in his other four attempts.

Tyrrell Hatton (+2200)

This is the time of year for him, the Englishman always performs well in Florida, and this year was no exception with a fourth at Bay Hill and runner-up at TPC Sawgrass. He comes to Austin having won his group three times, but he’s been unable to get into the quarterfinals each time.

Jason Day (+2500)

Is still waiting for that breakthrough win to announce that he’s fully back on the PGA Tour, but his 2023 has been consistently good: no missed cuts in six tries with a worst finish of 19^th at The Players Championship. That finish snapped a four-event streak of landing in the top 10, and he’s a winner here at Austin in 2016.

Will Zalatoris (+2500)

Will Zalatoris reached the quarterfinals last year but struggled in the big Florida events—coming in 53^rd at the Arnold Palmer and 73^rd at The Players. We’ll see if a week off resets him and gets him back into the form where he finished fourth at Riviera last month.

Longshots

No preview of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play can be written without mentioning Kevin Kisner (+7500). His odds are extremely long due to 2023 being a major struggle this far (no top 10s and missing the cut in four of his last five tournaments), but he’s reached the final round here in three of the last four editions of this tournament, including a win in 2021.

Matt Kuchar (+8000) is also a mega longshot who has a solid history here. In addition to winning this tournament in 2013 (prior to the Austin era), Kuchar didn’t play last year but was third in 2021 and runner-up to Kisner in 2019 (there wasn’t a 2020 tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Last year’s third-place finisher, Corey Conners, comes in at (+5500). The Canadian beat Dustin Johnson in the consolation match in 2022.