WGC-Dell Match Play 2019 Betting Tips & Top Golfers to Back

Matt Cooper

March 26th, 2019

Url copied!

Quick Tips

• Bet Si-Woo Kim at 100/1 with MansionBet.
• Bet Matt Wallace at 80/1 with 888Sport.
• Bet Paul Casey at 25/1 with RedBet.
• Bet Kiradech Aphibarnrat at 100/1 with SportNation.

The Lowdown

The World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play is something of a mouthful and it is also something of an oddball, given that it is, with the exception of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, the only regular match play golf we get to see at the top of the sport.

It’s a curiosity of golf that the sport demands alternative formats and then grumbles when it gets one. So it is that the voices most desperate for match play golf also hate the fact the first round is played in groups instead of pure knockout.

From the point of view of the organizers, this is nothing more or less than realism. The top professionals hated the idea of rocking up to a tournament which might last no more than one round (and in theory as few as 10 holes).

As Tiger Woods said after the Players Championship: “I hope I can play all the matches, but I’m guaranteed three. When I played in the past it was one. It’s kind of nice knowing it will be three and that’s basically like a tournament.” That’s also basically like a slap down of the old-style format.

The Course

Austin Country Club hosts for the fourth time, a par-71 at 7,043 yards designed by Pete Dye. “It’s a course of two halves,” Rafa Cabrera Bello told the European Tour a couple of years ago. “The first nine is much tighter off the tee, really in the middle of the trees, and then the back nine is much more open with wide fairways.

” With four reachable par-5s and a short par-4 there is plenty of risk and reward, and the Spaniard claims: “You see the Scottish influence in some aspects, small pot bunkers, linksy contours on and around the greens, run-off areas.”

Winner's Profile

The three winners on the course (Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson) don’t shout “links specialists,” but if you want to take the Spaniard’s hint, perhaps note that Louis Oosthuizen, Cabrera Bello himself, Jon Rahm and Alex Noren have all won on links tracks and also made the sem-finals here (in addition Kevin Kisner was second here last year and then second in the Open at Carnoustie).

The format change can also aid those players who struggle to get over the finishing line in stroke play (think, at various stages in their career, Steve Stricker, Geoff Ogilvy, Hunter Mahan, Matt Kuchar, even Day early on). Here’s one pick from each quarter:

Si-Woo Kim

The Korean won the 2017 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and was second in last year’s Heritage at Harbour Town. What do those two locations have in common? They’re both Pete Dye designs. He’s also been fourth at Pebble Beach this year and third at Riviera a week later so he’s in form.

Twelve months ago he made the knockout stages of this tournament which completes a nice combination and yet he’s a very tasty 100/1 with MansionBet.

Paul Casey

The Englishman will be flying high after defending his Valspar Championship last week and he has plenty of success in head to head golf, too: he was the winner of the old Wentworth-based HSBC World Match Play in 2006 and he added runner-up finishes in this tournament in both 2009 and 2010.

He made the knockout stages here at Austin in 2017 and in all he has won 35 of his 64 singles match play rubbers. He’s up against Cameron Smith, Charles Howell III and Abraham Ancer in Round 1. and while it’s foolish to get cocky, it’s a draw he surely can’t help but fancy. He’s 25/1 with RedBet.

Matt Wallace

His quarter includes Justin Thomas, Jason Day, Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, but plenty of those could knock one another out and if the packed nature of this group of 16 plays into the hands of an outsider why not the confident Wallace?

He’s not defending the Indian Open this week, but he’ll be feeling a little chipper remembering how that win kick-started his rise to regular WGC appearances. He also has a touch of Ian Poulter chutzpah about him – why not in match play too? He’s 80/1 with 888Sport.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat

The Thai golfer has winning experience of this form of the game, moreover it came by the British seaside at Murcar Links in the 2015 Paul Lawrie Match Play.

He also proved when winning the World Super 6 Perth last year that he loves playing winner-takes-all golf and, most persuasive of all, is his spectacular record in recent WGC events: he has five top-5 finishes from his last seven starts, including a quarterfinal appearance here 12 months ago. He’s 100/1 with SportNation.