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The Punter's De-Brief: Battling Burns wins the Match Play ahead of Masters

Steven Rawlings
27 March 2023
4:00 min read

Sam Burns with the WGC Match Play trophy

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Sam Burns has won his first WGC event, Matt Wallace has secured his first victory on the PGA Tour and Nick Bachem has got off the mark on the DP World Tour. Steve looks back at their victories here...

Brilliant Burns is the Match Play champ
Burns now 28/1 for Masters next month
Wallace is a winner on the PGA Tour
Bachem battles back to get off the mark
Read my Valero Texan Open preview here

Sam Burns takes home the title

All four semi-finalists at the final edition of the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play traded at odds-on to win the tournament but it was the pre-event 60.059/1 chance and 13th seed, Sam Burns, that eventually emerged triumphant.

Burns was the 7.26/1 outsider of four on Sunday morning and he looked dead and buried on more than one occasion in his semi-final match against the world number one and defending champ, Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler was 2 up though 12 before Burns birdied four holes in five from the 13th to take the lead.

Scheffler had been matched at just 1.9310/11 but after Burns' birdie barrage, he needed to birdie the 18th to take the tie into extra time and when he hit his approach to four feet at the second extra hole, it looked like he'd be in the final for the third year in-a-row.

It seemed like Burns' late rally was going to prove pointless, but Scheffler missed his birdie putt before making a mess of the 21st hole and Burns advanced to the final.

Scottie just misses.

The playoff continues @DellMatchPlay. pic.twitter.com/Zbb6bE0KJl
-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 26, 2023

Young pips McIlroy in a play-off

Having trailed early, McIlroy led his semi-final against Cameron Young from the sixth hole to the 18th, when Young holed a seven-footer for birdie at the last to tie the match.

Rory was matched at a low of 1.774/5 to win the tournament and he looked in control at the first extra hole in the semi-final, but it wasn't to be.

After his drive had found a tricky spot in the bunker on the par five 12th hole, Young could only pitch out with a wedge but he hit a great approach to nine feet and holed the putt.

Rory then missed his birdie effort from eight feet and Young was in the final.

All American final

Young began the final trading at 1.834/5, with Burns a 2.26/5 chance, and Young hit a low of just 1.491/2 when he hit his tee shot to inside seven feet on the par three fourth, when already 1 up, but Burns responded brilliantly, hitting his tee shot inside Young's.

Both made their birdie twos but that was the turning point.

Burns birdied three of the next four holes to assume command and as it so often is, the final turned into a one-sided affair with Burns eventually going on to win by an emphatic 6&5.

The match that many had hoped to be the final, the third-place playoff between the world numbers one and three, Scheffler and McIlroy, was a tighter affair with McIlroy eventually winning 2&1.

Young had played superbly all week but it's hard to argue that battling Burns wasn't a worthy winner given he'd trailed in six of his seven matches.

Wallace and Bachem bounce back to win

Pre-event 48.047/1 chance, Matt Wallace, had led the Corales Puntacana Championship at the halfway stage but having trailed by a stroke with a round to go, his chance looked lost when he bogeyed the second.

Wallace's priced spiked to 40.039/1 after the early dropped shot but he battled back with back-to-back birdies, and he seized the initiative with four birdies in-a-row from the 13th, overtaking my in-play pick, Tyler Duncan, who was matched at a low of 1.774/5.

Denmark's Nicolai Hojgaard got to within a stroke of Wallace with a birdie at the 17th hole, but he couldn't back it up with another at the 72nd hole and Wallace was left holding the trophy.

Wallace wins the Corales.jpg

It was Wallace's first victory in five years and his first on the PGA Tour.

Bachem backers delight

Over on the DP World Tour, Germany's Alex Knappe began the final round of the Jonsson Workwear Open with a one-stroke lead but it was Gavin Green and the halfway leader, Nick Bachem, that began round four the fastest.

Green birdied three of the first four holes and Bachem birdied four of the first five and the German never looked back after that.

Having been matched at a high of 130.0129/1 when the market first opened, and having gone off at around 80.079/1, the well-backed Bachem began the final round trailing his fellow countryman by a stroke and trading at 8.615/2 but he was always in command after his fast start on Sunday.

The 23-year-old went on to shoot a very impressive eight-under-par 64 to win his first DP World Tour event by four strokes.

Two years ago Nick Bachem was playing on the Pro Golf Tour.

He's now a winner on the DP World Tour!#JonssonWorkwearOpen | @Sunshine_Tour pic.twitter.com/E8ERWkqCk1
-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 26, 2023

Scheffler still heads the Masters market

The year's first major - the US Masters - is now less than a fortnight away and after another great week in Austin, Scottie Scheffler heads the market ahead of Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, with the 2016 winner, Jordan Spieth, who failed to get out of his group at the Match Play, drifting out to 20.019/1.

Neither of the finalists, Burns and Young, have shortened up in the US Masters market but that's not entirely surprising given both missed the cut on their Augusta debuts 12 months ago.

The 2021 Masters champ, Hideki Matsuyama, and the in-form Englishman, Tyrrell Hatton, who are both currently trading at 65.064/1 to win the year's first major, are the shortest priced players in the US Masters market that are lining up in the Valero Texas Open this week (previewed here) so I'm not expecting much market movement.

With Augusta form figures reading 55-5-51-2-10-3, the reigning Open champion and LIV defector, Cam Smith, who traded at a low of 2.111/10 in the US Masters last year, looks fractionally big at 24.023/1 and he may be one to shorten up over the next week.

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter

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Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.

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The Punter's De-Brief: Battling Burns wins the Match Play ahead of Masters

Brilliant Burns is the Match Play champ

Burns now 28/1 for Masters next month

Wallace is a winner on the PGA Tour

Bachem battles back to get off the mark

Read my Valero Texan Open preview here

Sam Burns takes home the title

Young pips McIlroy in a play-off

All American final

Wallace and Bachem bounce back to win

Bachem backers delight

Scheffler still heads the Masters market

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Brilliant Burns is the Match Play champ

Burns now 28/1 for Masters next month

Wallace is a winner on the PGA Tour

Bachem battles back to get off the mark

Read my Valero Texan Open preview here

Sam Burns takes home the title

Young pips McIlroy in a play-off

All American final

Wallace and Bachem bounce back to win

Bachem backers delight

Scheffler still heads the Masters market

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