Last week saw Sam Burns successfully defend his 2021 Valspar Championship in epic playoff fashion, but with the Masters just around the corner, it's time for the Tour's lone match-play event — the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play.
The tournament's unique format begins with a 64-player event consisting of 16 groups playing a round-robin style. The group winners advance to a bracket-style tournament, where single-elimination matches take place to determine the champion.
A year ago, Billy Horschel — with pre-tournament odds of +8,000 — battled his way through the tournament, eventually beating Scottie Scheffler to capture his sixth PGA Tour title.
This year's field includes OWGR No. 1 Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, 2017 champion Dustin Johnson, as well as Bryson DeChambeau — who is set to make his first Tour start since the Farmers in January after nursing injuries to his left hand and hip.
With the event underway at Austin Country Club, you can check out the live betting odds below. You can also check out our outright predictions as well as Tour Junkies' full slate of best bets and predictions.
Odds courtesy of Betway.
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play pre-tournament favorites
Jon Rahm (+1,400)
Sitting atop yet another PGA Tour odds board is World No. 1, Jon Rahm, at +1,400.
Rahm enters the week looking to put a forgettable T55 finish at the roller-coaster PLAYERS Championship behind him with the fast-approaching Masters just a few weeks away.
His best result here in Austin was a runner-up finish in 2017, losing to Dustin Johnson (+2,000) in the final. He also posted a T5 here a year ago.
He's grouped up with Patrick Reed, Cameron Young, and Sebastian Munoz and as unpredictable as match play can be sometimes, Rahm will be expected to advance.
Justin Thomas (+1,400)
Alongside Rahm atop the board at +1,400 is Justin Thomas.
While it's been over a year since his win at the 2021 PLAYERS, few golfers are playing better than JT right now. He's finished T8 or better in six of his eight starts and enters the week fresh off a T3 at Copperhead last week.
While Thomas is clearly the favorite, his group features Kevin Kisner, one of the Tour's best match play golfers, as well as Marc Leishman, and this year's Farmers Insurance Open winner Luke List.
Viktor Hovland (+1,400)
The third and final PGA Tour stud available at +1,400 is Norway's Viktor Hovland.
Hovland's scorching-hot run of form came to a brief halt, finishing just T33 at Valspar last week but a T9 at TPC Sawgrass the week prior followed up a T2 at Bay Hill, a T4 at Genesis, as well as a run of three worldwide victories in five starts as he entered 2022 (Dubai Desert Classic, Hero World Challenge, and World Wide Technology Championship).
He finished just T42 here last year but will look to improve on that if he can get through his group that features Will Zalatoris, Cameron Tringale, and Sepp Straka.
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play notable sleepers
Kevin Kisner (+5,000)
We have to highlight one of the Tour's match-play assassins — Kevin Kisner.
Kisner followed up a runner-up finish here in 2018 with a win in 2019 and has posted a singles record of 16-5-2 at the Dell Match Play dating back to 2016, handing losses to the likes of Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas.
He's just two weeks removed from a solo-fourth finish at TPC Sawgrass with the tougher Round 1/Round 2 draw and at the 50/1 number, has to be seriously considered this week.
Alex Noren (+5,000)
A name that's starting to get more and more shine is Alex Noren, who's also on this week's board at 50/1.
He's found some solid form in 2022 which includes a T5 at the Honda, T6 in Phoenix, and a T12 at last week's Valspar Championship, but what makes him worth highlighting in this spot is his match play history.
Noren has either halved or won 81.4% of holes played here at the Dell Match Play — that leads this week's field. And going back to 2018, only Bubba Watson has a hole-win percentage higher than Noren's (31.1%). At 50/1 this week, the Swede presents a lot of value.
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Odds FAQs
OWGR No. 1 Scottie Scheffler enter the week as a +800 betting favorite to win the 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
The WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is played at the Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. The event has taken place in Austin since 2016 and is the only event that uses the match play format on the PGA Tour calendar.
Scottie Scheffler won the 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play with odds of +2,000, beating out Kevin Kisner in the final.
The 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play purse is $20 million, with $3.6 million going to the winner.
