Two of the three Irish hopefuls at this week’s WGC Match Play in Texas are odds-on favourites to get their campaigns off to winning starts in Wednesday’s opening matches, and all three are popular bets for overall glory.
BoyleSports have made defending champion and World Number 1 Scottie Scheffler the 15/2 favourite to cement his World Number 1 status by winning the event as 64 of the world’s best players compete for a place in Sunday’s final. With two wins already to his name this season, and a burgeoning reputation as a match play specialist, Scheffler is hard to look by overall, and has been popular with punters to make it back-to-back WGC Match Play victories.
Rory McIlroy, who is third favourite at 11/1 to go the distance, is an odds-on 1/2 to begin with a victory over Scott Stallings and an 11/10 shot to reach the knockout stages by winning his group which also includes Denny McCarthy and major winner Keegan Bradley.
Shane Lowry has been clipped into 5/2 from 11/4 to proceed from his group which features in-form Texan Jordan Spieth, with the Offaly man also well backed at 10/11 to see off Taylor Montgomery in his group opener. Spieth is the favourite to advance to the knockout stages, but it’s a feat he’s managed just twice since the new format was brought in in 2015.
Seamus Power is the only of the Irish trio going into Wednesday’s matches as an underdog as he faces former Masters champion Adam Scott, but the Waterford man is taking each-way support and has shortened into 50/1 from 66/1 to go all the way having reached the quarter-finals on tournament debut last year.
Lawrence Lyons, spokesperson for BoyleSports said:“The WGC Match Play represents a change of pace this week and the format has produced a few shock winners over the years. It took the eventual champion Scottie Scheffler to knock out Seamus Power last year, so he’s being eyed up as one of the most likely outsiders.”
WGC Match Play
15/2 S Scheffler
10/1 J Rahm
11/1 R McIlroy
14/1 P Cantlay
18/1 bar
To win Groups
11/10 R McIlroy (v S Stallings, D McCarthy & K Bradley)
5/2 S Lowry (v T Montgomery, M Hughes & J Spieth)
11/4 S Power (v S Burns, A Hadwin & A Scott)
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