This week’s World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play will be the final event for most of the PGA Tour’s biggest names ahead of the 2021 Masters Tournament (April 8-11). Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas, hosts the bracket of 64 for the first time since 2019. Below, we look at the 2021 WGC Match Play odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions to win.
The 2020 Match Play was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was not made up upon the Tour’s mid-June restart. As such, Kevin Kisner, who enters this week at 49th in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings, is the defending champion.
The Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic hosts a field of 132 as this week’s alternate event.
2021 WGC Match Play picks – Favorite
Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports’ betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Monday at 1:45 p.m. ET.
Bryson DeChambeau (+1400)
DeChambeau comes into this week in top form following victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a semi-disappointing T-3 finish at the Players Championship. He played this event only in 2019 when he was knocked out by group champion Marc Leishman in pool play.
DeChambeau leads the PGA Tour with 1.22 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and 2.29 SG: Tee-to-Green through 30 measured rounds on the 2020-21 season. He averaged 0.69 and 0.94 SG: Putting at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, respectively.
The biggest threat on this side of the bracket is world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, but he’s likely to be looking ahead to defending his green jacket at Augusta National Golf Club in two weeks.
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2021 WGC Match Play picks – Contender
Viktor Hovland (+3300)
Hovland is likely to be tasked with a match against DeChambeau in Round 2 of the bracket format, but he has a very manageable pool in the group stage against Abraham Ancer, Bernd Wiesberger and Kevin Streelman.
The 23-year-old Norwegian is already a two-time PGA Tour champion and will play in his first match-play event. He tied for second at the WGC-Workday Championship last month before a T-49 finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and missed cut at the Players.
He’s averaging 1.79 SG: Tee-to-Green per round through 41 measured rounds this season. He has broken 70 in 11 of his 22 rounds in 2021.
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2021 WGC Match Play picks – Long shot
Carlos Ortiz (+10000)
Ortiz, 81st in the Golfweek rankings, is worth a long-shot bet from the right side of the bracket. He’ll play his group stage against Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama and Brian Harman. Cantlay has the best odds of the four to win this event at +2800.
The 29-year-old makes his WGC-Match Play debut after winning November’s Vivint Houston Open by two strokes over Matsuyama and Johnson. It was his first PGA Tour victory and gained him entry to his first Masters.
Ortiz missed the cut at the Players, but he previously tied for 15th at the WGC-Workday Championship and has a top finish of T-4 this year in a strong field at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
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