It’s goodbye Florida and hello Texas as the PGA Tour makes its first trip of the season to the Lone Star State for the start of the 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event on Wednesday. The draw for all 16 groups has been set and this year’s field features a whopping 64 of the world’s top 66 golfers all making the trek to the Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. This year’s star-studded collection of the world’s best golfers has Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy as prohibitive co-favorites at 9-1, followed by Justin Thomas at 14-1, John Rahm at 16-1 odds and both, Jason Day and Justin Rose as identical 20-1 picks.
Now, let’s take a look at some of the golf odds for the top picks to win it all before I offer up a look at my top five picks to bring home the bacon at this year’s event.
2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Odds & Preview
- When: Wednesday March 27, 2019, 12:00 PM ET
- Where: Austin Country Club, Austin, TX
- TV: GOLF, NBC
Odds to Win 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play
- Dustin Johnson 9-1
- Rory McIlroy 9-1
- Justin Thomas 14-1
- Jon Rahm 16-1
- Jason Day 20-1
- Justin Rose 20-1
- Tommy Fleetwood 20-1
- Tiger Woods 22-1
- Brooks Koepka 22-1
- Bryson DeChambeau 25-1
- Paul Casey 25-1
- Bubba Watson 28-1
- Francesco Molinari 28-1
- Xander Schauffele 28-1
- Tony Finau 33-1
Rory McIlroy
- 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Odds: +1000
In seven events this season, McIlroy has carded six Top 10 finishes including a win in his last appearance at the Player’s Championship two weeks ago. McIlroy won this event in 2015 and finished as the runner-up in 2012 and basically comes into this year’s tournament as one of, if not, the, hottest golfer on the planet.
Paul Casey
- 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Odds: +2500
Casey won the Valspar Championship last weekend by one stroke over Louis Oosthuizen and Jason Kokrak by shooting a blistering 66 in the second round and a sweet 68 the following day. More importantly, Casey has been playing solid golf by recording three Top 10 finishes in his last five tournaments including a third place finish at the WGC-Mexico Championship last month and a second place finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach to kick off February. Casey also finished as the runner-up here in consecutive years (2009-2010), so he’s had plenty of success in this kind of event.
Dustin Johnson
- 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Odds: +1100
Johnson has recorded five Top 10 finishes in seven appearances this season while bringing home the hardware at the WGC-Mexico Championship in February, while also finishing fifth at The Player’s Championship and sixth at last weekend’s Valspar Championship. Johnson also won this event in 2017. Johnson ranks 31st in birdies per round (4.29), 27th in driving distance (304.1 yards) and fifth in sand saves. Basically, he’s got every shot in the game in his vast array.
Xander Schauffele
- 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Odds: +4000
The 25-year-old Schauffele might be a bit of a long shot at 28- odds, but I believe he’s offering some excellent value seeing as how he’s finished 15th or better in each of his last three tournaments and five times in his last seven appearances overall. Schauffele ranks an impressive 19th in birdies per round (4.41) while also ranking a stupendous fourth in greens hit in regulation (71.2%).
Tiger Woods
- 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Odds: +3000
While Woods clearly hasn’t been awful this season, he’s also not quite lived up to the immense expectations everyone had for him after he closed out the 2017-18 season by winning the Tour Championship in September following a series of other surprisingly solid performances that put him back in the mix of the world’s best players. In four events this season, Woods has recorded just one Top 10 finish, but that performance came at the WGC-Mexico Championships and Woods excels at match play golf probably better than any other golfer – ever.
Yes, this will be Woods’ first WGC Match Play start since 2013, but the 43-year-old is also the only three-time winner of this event (2003, 2004, 2008) and the only player in this event’s history to have successfully defended his title. While Woods has never teed it up at the Austin Country Club, I think everyone knows by now to never, ever put anything past Tiger Woods.
