WGC Dell Match Play
By Sportsbook.ag
The second WGC event of 2017 tees off for the PGA Tour and it's one of the players favorite events of the season in the WGC Match Play event.
While most of the betting world focuses on their brackets for the NCAA March Madness tournament, the PGA has their own bracket format in this event, and since they switched it over to a round robin format in 2015 for the opening group stage, this event has been dominated by the top players in the world.
Rory McIlroy won it back in 2015 and Jason Day enters this year as the defending champion, both of whom were ranked in the Top 2 in the world at the time. Currently it's Dustin Johnson (#1) and McIlroy (#2) sitting in those top two spots and then are the only two golfers with odds under (+1000) this week as they are (+700) and (+600) respectively.
Golfers to Watch:
Since this is one of the only events of the year that uses the match play format, it's best to go through the entire bracket and plan the route to the title like you would in the NCAA. The full WGC bracket can be found here, and it's a great place to start.
There can be a lot that can happen in the group stage, and like the NCAA Tournament, upsets will happen, so bettors that prefer to get a taste of the action first before getting wagers down might want to wait until Friday to see who has survived the group stage to figure out who's got their game sharp and can go on a run. That being said, here are two guys that you should watch with vested interest as the week goes on.
Matt Kuchar (40/1) – Kuchar would have to meet up with Dustin Johnson in the Round of 16 should they both survive the group stage, but oddly enough, it's Kuchar that's got a more winnable group than Johnson and is just the type of player that could use that momentum to go on a roll.
It was the Round of 16 where Kuchar was eliminated a year ago (1 down to Brooks Koepka), so it's not like he's never had good results on this course before. At +4000 the value is there to take a talented golfer like this in a tournament that has seen the #16 overall seed like Kuchar is reach the Round of 16 in 2015, and reach the Finals a year ago.
Bill Haas (90/1) – Haas is another golfer with tremendous odds that has the bracket set up rather well for him, as the higher seeds in his group (Danny Willett and Russell Knox) aren't anywhere near the top of their game at the the moment, and a Round of 16 matchup with Justin Thomas or any of the other golfers coming out of that group is very winnable.
Like Kuchar, Haas was eliminated in a very close Round of 16 matchup a year ago (2&1 loss to Chris Kirk) and improving on that result is the ultimate goal. With the talent and the draw well above the 90-1 odds he's getting here, a longshot play on this veteran is worth some serious consideration.
WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Preview
By Matt Fargo
Covers.com
For the first time in three years, there is normality for the WGC- Dell Technologies Match Play. The date is still a late March start and the venue remains the same as Austin Country Club will be hosting for a second straight year. Dell Technologies remains the sponsor and this is the third year of the new format where players are put into 16 four-man pods with the winner from each pod advancing into a single-elimination bracket for the weekend.
The match play was played at The Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona from 2009-2014 then moved to TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, California in 2015 and to Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas last year and will be played here through 2019. This is a Pete Dye design that is not very long but what it lacks in length it makes up for in imagination as it is a classic shotmakers course. While the field has limited rounds here, it means little. Because it is match play, players are taking on each other and not the golf course.
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson heads the brackets as all but five of the top 64 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are taking part as No.5 Henrik Stenson, No.8 Adam Scott, No.9 Rickie Fowler, No.13 Justin Rose and No. 44 Adam Hadwin are skipping. The format assigns the top seed for each of the 16 four-man pods based on the top 16 players in the OWGR. The remaining three players in each pod were determined by a blind draw from each of three pools depending on their standing in the OWGR (17-32, 33-48 and 49-64).
In the 18 years of this event, a number one seed has won it only four times, three of those being Tiger Woods and the other being Rory McIlroy in 2015. There are plenty of upsets throughout but for the most part, a low seed usually takes home the prize. Only six times in 18 years has there been a player seeded No. 20 or higher to win while over the last 10 years, the champion has been ranked in the top 10 eight times. Defending champion Jason Day was a No. 2 seed.
The top four seeds this week are Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and Hideki Matsuyama but they are not the four favorites. McIlroy is the favorite at +620 followed by Johnson at +705. The third favorite is Jordan Spieth, who is the No. 5 seed, at +895 while defending champion Day checks in at +1,550 and Matsuyama is +2,200. Only two other players are listed under +3,000 and those are No. 21 seed Jon Rahm at +2,500 and No. 6 seed Justin Thomas at +2,800.
Because of this format, we have to look at the four-man pods and who has the best chances to advance because picking a winner from the top 16 is a lot easier than trying to pick one from the 64 overall players. Looking at overall rankings and match play experience within the four-man groups is vital. The wild card however is once the top 16 is determined, there is no determination of which side of the bracket players will fall so having them spread out is optimal but we won't know that until after Friday.