Rory McIlroy

2021 Players Championship Picks: Head-to-head and 3-ball matchup predictions

Esten McLaren

Sportsbook Wire

Looking to bet on The Players Championship? SportsbookWire has you covered with an abundance of golf betting coverage for the tournament. Below, we look at the 2021 Players Championship odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions for the top head-to-head and 3-ball tournament matchups.

A field of 154 is at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, as Rory McIlroy attempts to defend his 2019 title. Last year's event was canceled following the end of Round 1 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Players Championship annually hosts one of the strongest fields on the PGA Tour schedule as golf's best compete for a share of the $15 million prize purse.

Also see:

2021 Players Championship picks: Round 1 3-ball matchups

Odds provided by BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports' betting odds for a full list. Lines last updated Wednesday at 10:21 a.m. ET.

Louis Oosthuizen vs. Lee Westwood (+175) vs. Robert MacIntyre

The soon-to-be 48-year-old Westwood is coming off a runner-up finish to Bryson DeChambeau last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in which he led the field in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and was third in SG: Approach. Those traits are highly important at TPC Sawgrass.

Oosthuizen can be faded as the favorite in this 3-ball matchup following last Thursday morning's withdrawal.

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Bryson DeChambeau vs. Collin Morikawa vs. Dustin Johnson (+150)

We're getting plus-money here for the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking and second-ranked golfer in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings. It's a good way to help maximize value on Johnson, who's just +1200 to win this week as the tournament betting favorite.

DeChambeau's distance won't translate as well to the shorter TPC Sawgrass following his victory at Bay Hill.

2021 Players Championshippicks: 72-hole head-to-head matchups

Daniel Berger (-115) vs. Hideki Matsuyama

Matsuyama held the 18-hole lead at the 2020 Players Championship when play was called. Berger won the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for his second victory in the last two years.

Back Berger and his superior form in 2021, even though Matsuyama is more experienced and has a more impressive resume at this venue. Matsuyama is losing 0.22 strokes per round putting through 43 measured rounds on the 2020-21 season.

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Jordan Spieth vs. Tommy Fleetwood (-115)

Spieth is always the popular play and has been quickly climbing back up the OWGR with three top-10 finishes in five events this year. He tied for fourth last week, but it was greatly helped out by a Saturday ace and hole out from a bunker.

Fleetwood maintains the higher seed in the OWGR and is coming off a T-10 finish last week. He has also gained an average of 1.78 strokes per round on the field at TPC Sawgrass while Spieth has averaged just 0.64 strokes gained per round here.

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Patrick Reed vs. Tyrrell Hatton (-110)

Both Reed and Hatton have victories in 2021, with Reed's coming at the Farmers Insurance Open and Hatton's at the European Tour's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship` Reed missed the cut last week while Hatton tied for 21st.

Hatton struggled with the putter while shooting opening and closing rounds of 5-over par 77, but he had the second-best round of the day Friday and fired Saturday's fourth-best round.

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