WGC Match Play Odds And Bracket

The groups are set along with the odds to win the WGC Match Play event. I chip-in an early preview at TheLines, and added Golfers to Watch beyond the top favorites and lead golfers in each of the 16 groups.

WGC MATCH PLAY BRACKET AND ODDS 2021

The field consists of the top 64 players representing 17 countries from the Official World Golf Rankings  at the conclusion of the Honda Classic, where I chipped-in another tournament match-up winner. That runs the tournament match-up record to 8-2 since the Farmer’s Insurance Open at Torrey Pines – site of the 2021 U.S. Open.

The groups have been announced for @DellMatchPlay!

Time to fill out those brackets. ✍ pic.twitter.com/cYHXt3hOpY

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 22, 2021

Course and Tournament Information

• Course: Austin Country Club
• Location: Austin, TX
• Date: March 24-28
• Par: 71 / Yardage 7,182
• Purse: $10.5 Million / Winner $1.87 M
• Fairways/Rough: Bermudagrass
• Greens: : Bermudagrass
• TV/Online: Golf Channel, NBC (Sat/Sun), PGA Tour Live
• Twitter & Hashtag: @DellMatchPlay
• Defending Champion: Kevin Kisner (2019)

Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson are the favorites to win the event with odds from +1200 to +1500. Check out all the players odds to win in my WGC Match Play update at TheLines.

Odds to win the Group Round from Circa Sports in Las Vegas.

https://twitter.com/CircaSports/status/1374161885528952835

No ‘Fairway Favorites’ or ‘Fairway Longshots’ this week, and we’ll pass on the Group winners picks. I provided some inital thoughts on Jon Rahm, who looks most likely to win Group 3 and play in the Round of 16 Saturday morning, and again in the quarterfinals Saturday. I chipped in more info in my article at Forbes on Jon Rahm and his potential to withdraw at any time during this event up through the Masters due to the arrival of his newborn son.

But note that since the group pool format change in 2016, only 36% of the top-seeded players (16 top seeds) have advanced out of their respective groups into the round of 16. The player seeded second in the groups has advanced 25% of the time, third seed 22% and fourth seed 15%. On seven occasions, a player seeded 50th or worse has advanced to the quarterfinals if not beyond.

I added some Golfers to Watch and longshots in my update at TheLines. Check out some brief analysis on Paul Casey, Tyrrell Hatton, Si Woo Kim and Victor Perez.

Victor Perez (+15000 DraftKings): Let’s include a bomb, and take a much better price at DraftKings over FanDuel (+10000). Perez is in wide open Group 16 against Sungjae Im, Russell Henley and Marc Leishman. Perez is the longshot and +350 to advance, but his improved game should not be overlooked. He competed against Rahm and DeChambeau as an amateur, and has moved up to become a solid pro mostly in the European Tour where he has some top-10 finishes this season. The tall Frenchman was a surprise winner of the 2019 Dunhill Links when he defeated some of the top players in this event.

I’ll update any Round of 16 picks once the weekend match-ups are set and we’ve had any chance to review player performances on the course in the opening round robin format.