Eric Uribe
The golf season is rolling along, albeit slowly. If you’re not quite ready to bet on a regular PGA event, then The Match exhibition game is calling your name. This year’s event features four of the world’s very best-known golfers and you should be betting on it. Read this to get our pick on who wins golf’s The Match event — it’s completely free of cost.
Who Is Playing In The Match?
The Match debuted in 2018 with a one-on-one battle between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Somehow, someway it’s grown into a twice-a-year event that’s included the likes of Tom Brady, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Aaron Rodgers, among others. But the best has been left for last because the forthcoming Match event features the top golfers playing — no celebrities this time around.
The seventh iteration of The Match will feature Woods again, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, and Jordan Spieth. The latter three are making their first appearance at the event. Collectively, the four have won 24 major championships and been dominant faces in the sport over the last 30 years. Per usual, it’ll be a 2-vs-2 competition.
Thomas and Spieth will be paired together. That’s a natural pairing given the two’s buddy-buddy relationship with each other. The two were also partners during the 2022 Presidents Cup — winning the first four of their matches, becoming the first American pair since Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in 2009 to go 4-0-0 (and just the third overall).
That leaves McIlroy and Woods together — who just became business partners themselves. In August, they announced TMRW Sports. McIlroy had a stand-out 2022 campaign that included a Tour Championship and return to the No. 1 world ranking. Woods was less active, but alas has the most name recognition of any golfer ever.
As it stands, McIlroy and Woods are betting favorites to win, at least according to popular golf betting sites. Odds can change from now until tee time, but here’s how they’re currently pegged for each team:
| Team |  |  |
| Tiger Woods/Rory McIlroy | -135 | -135 |
| Jordan Spieth/Justin Thomas | -105 | -105 |
The Match goes down on Saturday, December 10. It will be a 12-hole event and it’ll be hosted at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida. The course was previously used for the Pelican Women’s Championship earlier this November. It’s a par-70 up to 7,000 yards. As with previous iterations of the event, it will benefit charities, this time going to Hurricane Ian relief efforts.
Best Bets To Win The Match VII
As you saw in the odds above, The Match is practically a betting toss-up in the eyes of the bookmakers. However, it’s not a toss-up at all in our eyes. In fact, we’re stunned the McIllroy-Woods pairing is favored to win because our best bet is actually on Spieth and Thomas.
Let’s cut right to the chase: Woods is the absolutely weakest link of any of the four — and it’s a massive gap too. More than anything else, Woods just isn’t active enough to hang with the other three that are full-time players on the Tour. Woods’ last competitive round was in July when he missed the cut at the Open Championship. Before that, he also played at the PGA Championship but withdrew due to nagging injuries.
With The Match being only 12 holes, there should be zero concerns about Woods’ durability. However, there should be about playing rust. To his credit, Woods will be suiting up for his own hosted Hero World Challenge the week before The Match. That’s some opportunity to knock off playing rust, but not nearly enough in our book.
While McIlroy is the strongest link of the bunch, it’ll take a herculean effort to make up for Woods. We take much more betting comfort in the “steady hands” of Speith and Thomas. We expect a ton more consistency out of the two, which should give them the edge to win The Match.
How To Watch & Bet On The Match VII
TNT will be the exclusive place to watch the star-studded Match event. It will also be simulcast on TNT’s “sister” networks — TBS, truTV, and HLN. Again, the game is slotted for Saturday, December 10, and begins at 6 pm EST sharp. The late start time means this contest will indeed be under the lights, which should add to the big-time atmosphere. No previous Match events were ever in the evening like this one.
For betting on the game — whether you’re taking our above betting advice or fading it — check out one of the respected online sportsbooks we’ve featured below. Any one of these odds will have industry-leading lines not only for The Match but for other golf events in the near-term and long-term future.
What’s great is these sportsbooks are super easy to join. You can literally go from reading this sentence to betting on The Match within minutes. Just hit one of the “play now” buttons on the table to begin the sign-up process. There are even lucrative sign-up bonuses at stake, which could make your first few bets free of cost. See the table below to see what we’re talking about!
