Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas fired seven birdies in 10 holes en route to beating Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy 3&2 in the latest instalment of The Match, a charity exhibition held at Pelican Golf Club in Florida.

Woods and McIlroy were outgunned in all departments of the match, which was due to be played over 12 holes, but only went as far as the 10^th due to the one-sided nature of the contest.

All four players were mic’d up and using custom carts for the floodlit match, which was Woods’ first televised appearance since missing the cut at The Open in July after sitting out last week’s Hero World Challenge due to injury.

“Tiger and Rory, what happened?” Thomas and Spieth said on Twitter after the win. “How do you lose to us two? It’s alright, everybody does!”

Woods admitted he had not hit a golf ball for over two weeks ahead of the contest due to plantar fasciitis, although he got up and down from just short of the green at the driveable par-four first to tie the hole with a birdie.

Thomas drained a long-range birdie at the second and Spieth rolled in from 15 feet at the par-three next, while Thomas two-putted from off the green using a five-wood for a winning par in the one-club challenge hole.

McIlroy missed a 12-foot birdie try to win the next and the teams claimed a share of the sixth with pars, before the world No 1 drained a 20-footer at the seventh to win the only hole of the contest for him and Woods. Thomas restored their advantage on the very next hole, rolling in from 12 feet for birdie, with Spieth then matching Woods and McIlroy’s birdie on the 10th to seal the victory.

The contest was the seventh edition of The Match and third appearance for Woods, having been beaten by Phil Mickelson in the inaugural event in 2018 and partnering Peyton Manning to victory in the 2020 contest.

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Bromance will be strong in the seventh edition of The Match. Featuring 15-time major champion Tiger Woods alongside his business partner and good friend Rory McIlroy squaring off with the all-American duo of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, the charity golf exhibition welcomes four major champions to Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, on Saturday. 

Woods and McIlroy possess 19 major championships between the two, while Spieth and Thomas lag behind with a measly five. While both pairs are experienced, only Woods has previously participated in The Match. Playing in the inaugural competition, Woods fell to Phil Mickelson in extra holes before exacting revenge over Mickelson and Tom Brady alongside Peyton Manning in the second edition of the event.

The 46-year-old may know what to expect from the competition, but perhaps not from his own game. Not seen in competition since The 150th Open, Woods was expected to play in the 2022 Hero World Challenge before being forced to withdraw due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot. 

“I like playing, I like competing, but unfortunately, I can hit the golf ball and hit whatever shot you want, I just can’t walk,” said Woods at the onset of his event in The Bahamas.

Fortunately for Woods, all competitors will use golf carts, and he happens to be paired with the best player in the game in world No. 1 McIlroy. The Northern Irishman is fresh off winning the DP World Tour Championship, capturing the European crown in conjunction with his FedEx Cup title from this past summer. McIlroy may be in the best form of the four players, but doubting Spieth and Thomas in a team competition has proven to be unwise in the past.

Garnering a 4-0-0 record with each other at the 2022 Presidents Cup, Spieth and Thomas were unstoppable at Quail Hollow Club in September. They are 16-7-1 when paired together between the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and should give Woods and McIlroy all they can handle over the course of a 12-hole best ball match.

LIVE updates: Follow along with all the action from The Match at this link here. 

The Match 7

Viewing information

Date: Saturday, Dec 10 | Time 7 p.m. ET 
Location: Pelican Golf Club — Belleair, Florida
Broadcast: TNT | Simulcast: TBS, truTV, HLN

Format

The Match will be contested under 12 holes of match play and best-ball format. Each player will play his own ball, and the best individual score from each team will count for the hole. 

Teams

Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy: They played in an exhibition at Big Cedar Lodge following the 2020 U.S. Open, but outside of that and practice rounds, the two do not have any experience alongside each other in the team setting. Woods is the major question mark among the four players, but any concerns may be squashed given his playing partner. McIlroy is playing some of the best golf of his career, and Woods has alway been known as someone to underdeliver to the media and overdeliver on the golf course. Perhaps this will be one of those instances as well.

Jordan Spieth & Justin Thomas: Thomas finished the Hero World Challenge on a high note to grab a solo fifth-place result, while Spieth nearly brought up the rear for the second straight year. These two can ham-and-egg it with the best of them and know each other’s game maybe better than their own. With a history of performing at their peak alongside each other, it is no surprise they are listed as the favorites in this one. However, if Tiger and Rory are smart (which they are), they won’t be giving these two too many gimmes — much to the dismay of Thomas — as short putts have been a thorn in both of their sides.

Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter and Patrick McDonald preview The Match featuring Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy vs Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth.  Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Picks, odds

Odds via Caesars Sportsbook

Spieth/Thomas: -125 | Woods/McIlroy: +105

There has been significant movement in this line since opening. Woods and McIlroy were actually -120 favorites at one point, but have since drifted to plus money as the underdogs. Spieth and Thomas should hypothetically roll, however, these charity events have seen some surprises with the best putters tending to win. That isn’t the strength of Thomas, and surely not Spieth, which makes me believe the current form of McIlroy combined with a sprinkle of Woods magic will be enough to see them come out on top. Pick: Woods/McIlroy +105

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The Match has become one of the most popular golf events as multiple sports celebrities such as Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Steph Curry have participated in past versions of the competition. It’ll just be professional golfers participating in The Match 2022 on Saturday (6 p.m. ET) at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla., however. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will team up against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas in what could be one of the highest-quality renditions of the event. Spieth and Thomas are priced as -130 favorites (risk $130 to win $100) at Caesars Sportsbook, giving them a slight edge over Woods and McIlroy (+110) in the latest The Match 7 odds.

Woods withdrew from the Hero World Challenge due to a foot injury, which is something to monitor as the event progresses. Should you be avoiding Woods and McIlroy due to that factor? Before locking in any Match 7 bets, be sure to see Match VII picks and predictions from SportsLine’s proven golf expert, Mike McClure. 

McClure, a DFS professional, knows golf inside and out. His proprietary model has been red-hot since the PGA Tour resumed in June of 2020. In fact, it’s up over $9,500 on its best bets since the restart, nailing tournament after tournament.

McClure’s model included Justin Thomas in its best bets to win the 2022 PGA Championship. That bet hit at +1600, and for the entire tournament, McClure’s best bets returned almost $800. At the 2022 Masters, McClure’s model was all over Scottie Scheffler’s first career major championship victory heading into the weekend.

In addition, McClure was all over Brooks Koepka defeating Bryson DeChambeau as a +110 underdog in The Match V. This same model has also nailed a whopping eight majors entering this event. Anyone who has followed it has seen massive returns.

Now, with The Match 7 set to tee off on Saturday evening, McClure has scoured the golf odds and locked in his top pick. Head to SportsLine now to see McClure’s best bet for The Match VII. 

Why Tiger Woods/Rory McIlroy can win The Match 7

Woods has experience participating in this event, as he teamed up with Peyton Manning to defeat Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in 2020. He is also one of the best golfers of all time, and McIlroy’s long drives should put him in a position to utilize his short game. McIlroy has the top spot in the World Golf Ranking and has placed at least fourth in six straight tournaments that he has participated in.

He has also played recently, finishing fourth in the DP World Tour Championship on Nov. 20, while Thomas and Spieth have not played competitively since Oct. 23. This is only a 12-hole exhibition match, so health should not be a major factor for Woods. His experience combined with McIlroy’s superior ability gives that duo an edge over Thomas and Spieth on Saturday. See which side to back at SportsLine.

Why Jordan Spieth/Justin Thomas can win The Match 7

This match will likely come down to the form of Woods, who is playing competitively for the first time in months and is dealing with several injuries. His lack of form makes Spieth and Thomas the much safer betting option, especially since they have gone 8-2 as a duo since 2018. They went 4-0-0 together at Quail Hollow in September, so they have some recent success to lean on heading into this exhibition showdown.

McIlroy has consistently been one of the best drivers in the sport, but Spieth and Thomas are both strong off the tee as well. They are close friends off the course, giving them an upper hand in a rare 2 vs. 2 exhibition format such as this one. Woods appears to be the weak link in this year’s version of The Match, especially considering the recent consistency from the other three golfers participating. See which side to back at SportsLine.

How to make The Match 2022 picks

McClure has scoured The Match VII odds board and found a critical x-factor that has him jumping all over one side. You can only get his top pick for The Match VII right here.

So who wins The Match VII? Visit SportsLine now to see who you can bank on to win The Match 7, and see where the betting value lies, all from the expert that’s nailed eight golf majors, and find out. 

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Saturday’s seventh edition of The Match — this one featuring Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas — should be as entertaining as golf gets at this time of the year. That quartet hasn’t been playing a ton, but these exhibition events are more about the interaction than the golf anyway, and the interaction should be phenomenal.

Woods and McIlroy will take on Spieth and Thomas at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday at Pelican Golf Club (more details here). The latter pair is favored, which led Thomas to joke Wednesday in a conference call that the sharps totally know what they’re doing when it comes to setting the lines.

There is plenty to be excited about when it comes to this particular event — perhaps Woods’ return to golf for the first time since July’s Open Championship most of all — and even though this best-ball match will only last 12 holes, it should be terrifically entertaining. Here are four things I’ll be looking for when the festivities get underway on Saturday.

1. Tiger’s health: There are a lot of very not serious items to tick off on Saturday night at Pelican, but Tiger’s health is not one of them. He withdrew from last week’s Hero World Challenge with plantar fasciitis and casually mentioned that he’d had other procedures earlier this year. He has insisted that he’ll be fine as long as he has a golf cart (he will Saturday), but I’m mildly dubious about his overall mobility.

There should not be (although there undoubtedly will be) any extrapolations made about next year’s major championships based on the 50 or so shots Woods hits at this event, but it’s been five months since we’ve seen him swing a golf club competitively. That’s not nothing, and the best swing of all time — whether it is affected by the myriad ailments Tiger feels in the rest of his body — will be under a microscope over the next 10 days (here and at the PNC Championship where he will tee it up with his son, Charlie).

2. Who is the best trash talker? Back to the more insouciant topics. There was debate on Wednesday about this. Tiger said he was limited in terms of the vocabulary he could use. Rory said he knows J.T. thinks he’s the best talker. J.T. and Spieth said they were so outclassed when it comes to wins and majors that they might have to take the nice guy route instead of going right at two guys with a combined 19 major championships. (Spieth and J.T. have five.) Banter at events like these is normally neutered, but hopefully the fellas get a little loose, and we get some top-notch one-liners.

3. Night golf: Spieth spoke about how he’s never played night golf before and how much he was looking forward to doing so. I am equally excited about some primetime East Coast golf in the winter. Normally, when golf is televised at these times, it’s on the West Coast, but this event should feel a little bigger than normal because it’s under the lights. I don’t know that this will affect the outcome (unless the lights on the carts malfunction for some reason), but it does add to the festivities a bit.

4. Best match ever: Up to this point, the most collective majors at a match like this one was 21 (Tiger and Phil Mickelson, multiple times). This group has 24 combined, and it represents the most collective talent at any of the seven official matches to date. Granted, 15 of those came from the guy who hasn’t played in five months, but three of the other players are among the 15 best in the world right now. If this thing is close late — and it likely will be — the battle for a meaningless victory certainly won’t feel like just another exhibition.

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After helping launch The Match golf series in 2018, and competing in the first two installments, Tiger Woods will return for The Match 2022 on Saturday. The 15-time major champion will team up with Rory McIlroy to take on Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas over 12 holes at Pelican Golf Club in the Tampa area. Set to tee off Saturday evening, The Match 7 will be the first of its kind to take place in primetime with a 6 p.m. ET start time. 

Given that Woods’ current form is well behind that of the other three, his pairing with McIlroy is listed as a +105 underdog (bet $100 to win $105). The latest Match 7 odds from Caesars Sportsbook have the Spieth and Thomas duo as -125 favorites (bet $125 to win $100). Before locking in any Match 7 bets, be sure to see Match VII picks and predictions from SportsLine’s proven golf expert, Mike McClure. 

McClure, a DFS professional, knows golf inside and out. His proprietary model has been red-hot since the PGA Tour resumed in June of 2020. In fact, it’s up over $9,500 on its best bets since the restart, nailing tournament after tournament.

McClure’s model included Justin Thomas in its best bets to win the 2022 PGA Championship. That bet hit at +1600, and for the entire tournament, McClure’s best bets returned almost $800. At the 2022 Masters, McClure’s model was all over Scottie Scheffler’s first career major championship victory heading into the weekend.

In addition, McClure was all over Brooks Koepka defeating Bryson DeChambeau as a +110 underdog in The Match V. This same model has also nailed a whopping eight majors entering this event. Anyone who has followed it has seen massive returns.

Now, with The Match 7 set to tee off on Saturday evening, McClure has scoured the golf odds and locked in his top pick. Head to SportsLine now to see McClure’s best bet for The Match VII. 

Why Tiger Woods/Rory McIlroy can win The Match VII

The Thomas/Spieth team may be the betting favorite, but the Woods/McIlroy duo has the single best golfer in this event. McIlroy is the World No. 1, having achieved that mark after winning the CJ Cup in late October. With the Irishman also winning the Tour Championship to close out last season, he’s won back-to-back PGA Tour events, so there’s no hotter golfer in the world than McIlroy. Meanwhile, neither Spieth nor Thomas has finished better than 40th at any full-field PGA Tour tournament this season.

The experience with this kind of event also benefits Woods and McIlroy as the former is the only of the four golfers to compete in The Match before. The format is much different than a typical PGA Tour event, and the newcomers will have to adjust to things such as interviews between shots, off-the-cuff side bets and on-course smack talk. Woods has experienced all of this twice before, and he could also help prepare McIlroy for the different environment. See which side to back at SportsLine.

Why Jordan Spieth/Justin Thomas can win The Match 7

Golf is primarily an individual sport but with the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup held in alternating years, this pair of young Americans have had plenty of opportunities to compete as a team. They went a perfect 4-0 while playing as a twosome in the 2022 Presidents Cup and they also played a combined six matches as teammates at the 2021 Ryder Cup and 2018 Ryder Cup, combining to go 4-2 in those matches.

That familiarity should be a significant advantage during this alternate four-ball format (though the exact rules haven’t yet been laid out). And while McIlroy and Woods are neighbors in Jupiter and have gotten closer over the years, you’d be hard-pressed to find a closer pair on the PGA Tour than Spieth and Thomas. They’ve regularly roomed together at certain tour stops and Spieth was the best man in Thomas’ recent wedding. See which side to back at SportsLine.

How to make The Match 2022 picks

McClure has scoured The Match VII odds board and found a critical x-factor that has him jumping all over one side. You can only get his top pick for The Match VII right here.

So who wins The Match VII? Visit SportsLine now to see who you can bank on to win The Match 7, and see where the betting value lies, all from the expert that’s nailed eight golf majors, and find out. 

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Bromance will be strong in the seventh edition of The Match. Featuring 15-time major champion Tiger Woods alongside his business partner and good friend Rory McIlroy squaring off with the all-American duo of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, the charity golf exhibition welcomes four major champions to Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, on Saturday. 

Woods and McIlroy possess 19 major championships between the two, while Spieth and Thomas lag behind with a measly five. While both pairs are experienced, only Woods has previously participated in The Match. Playing in the inaugural competition, Woods fell to Phil Mickelson in extra holes before exacting revenge over Mickelson and Tom Brady alongside Peyton Manning in the second edition of the event.

The 46-year-old may know what to expect from the competition, but perhaps not from his own game. Not seen in competition since The 150th Open, Woods was expected to play in the 2022 Hero World Challenge before being forced to withdraw due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot. 

“I like playing, I like competing, but unfortunately, I can hit the golf ball and hit whatever shot you want, I just can’t walk,” said Woods at the onset of his event in The Bahamas.

Fortunately for Woods, all competitors will use golf carts, and he happens to be paired with the best player in the game in world No. 1 McIlroy. The Northern Irishman is fresh off winning the DP World Tour Championship, capturing the European crown in conjunction with his FedEx Cup title from this past summer. McIlroy may be in the best form of the four players, but doubting Spieth and Thomas in a team competition has proven to be unwise in the past.

Garnering a 4-0-0 record with each other at the 2022 Presidents Cup, Spieth and Thomas were unstoppable at Quail Hollow Club in September. They are 16-7-1 when paired together between the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and should give Woods and McIlroy all they can handle over the course of a 12-hole best ball match.

The Match 7

Viewing information

Date: Saturday, Dec 10 | Time 7 p.m. ET 
Location: Pelican Golf Club — Belleair, Florida
Broadcast: TNT | Simulcast: TBS, truTV, HLN

Format

The Match will be contested under 12 holes of match play and best-ball format. Each player will play his own ball, and the best individual score from each team will count for the hole. 

Teams

Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy: They played in an exhibition at Big Cedar Lodge following the 2020 U.S. Open, but outside of that and practice rounds, the two do not have any experience alongside each other in the team setting. Woods is the major question mark among the four players, but any concerns may be squashed given his playing partner. McIlroy is playing some of the best golf of his career, and Woods has alway been known as someone to underdeliver to the media and overdeliver on the golf course. Perhaps this will be one of those instances as well.

Jordan Spieth & Justin Thomas: Thomas finished the Hero World Challenge on a high note to grab a solo fifth-place result, while Spieth nearly brought up the rear for the second straight year. These two can ham-and-egg it with the best of them and know each other’s game maybe better than their own. With a history of performing at their peak alongside each other, it is no surprise they are listed as the favorites in this one. However, if Tiger and Rory are smart (which they are), they won’t be giving these two too many gimmes — much to the dismay of Thomas — as short putts have been a thorn in both of their sides.

Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter and Patrick McDonald preview The Match featuring Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy vs Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth.  Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Picks, odds

Odds via Caesars Sportsbook

Spieth/Thomas: -125 | Woods/McIlroy: +105

There has been significant movement in this line since opening. Woods and McIlroy were actually -120 favorites at one point, but have since drifted to plus money as the underdogs. Spieth and Thomas should hypothetically roll, however, these charity events have seen some surprises with the best putters tending to win. That isn’t the strength of Thomas, and surely not Spieth, which makes me believe the current form of McIlroy combined with a sprinkle of Woods magic will be enough to see them come out on top. Pick: Woods/McIlroy +105

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Since debuting in 2018, The Match has produced a series of made-for-TV golf exhibitions featuring some of the best players in the world alongside other celebrities. And during what has been a tumultuous year for golf, The Match 2022 is turning to four of golf’s biggest stars as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy will take on Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. The quartet of PGA Tour professionals are all friends and have also become four of their tour’s most outspoken ambassadors. Now they’ll tee it up under the lights at the Pelican Golf Club just outside Tampa Bay, Fla., on Saturday for a 12-hole exhibition that should be incredibly entertaining with tee time scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.

This will be Woods’ first time playing televised golf since missing the cut at The Open Championship, but the 15-time major champion has maintained that he can still execute all the shots necessary to compete at a high level. Even so, Woods and McIlroy are +105 underdogs while Spieth and Thomas are -125 favorites (bet $125 to win $100) in the latest The Match 7 odds from Caesars Sportsbook. Before locking in any Match 7 bets, be sure to see Match VII picks and predictions from SportsLine’s proven golf expert, Mike McClure. 

McClure, a DFS professional, knows golf inside and out. His proprietary model has been red-hot since the PGA Tour resumed in June of 2020. In fact, it’s up over $9,500 on its best bets since the restart, nailing tournament after tournament.

McClure’s model included Justin Thomas in its best bets to win the 2022 PGA Championship. That bet hit at +1600, and for the entire tournament, McClure’s best bets returned almost $800. At the 2022 Masters, McClure’s model was all over Scottie Scheffler’s first career major championship victory heading into the weekend.

In addition, McClure was all over Brooks Koepka defeating Bryson DeChambeau as a +110 underdog in The Match V. This same model has also nailed a whopping eight majors entering this event. Anyone who has followed it has seen massive returns.

Now, with The Match 7 set to tee off on Saturday evening, McClure has scoured the golf odds and locked in his top pick. Head to SportsLine now to see McClure’s best bet for The Match VII. 

Why Tiger Woods/Rory McIlroy can win The Match VII

Tiger and Rory know each other well as long-time Nike brand ambassadors and the two shared a special moment as they played their Thursday and Friday rounds together at St. Andrews in the 150th Open Championship. And it was an acknowledgment from McIlroy on the course that Woods claims brought on the waterworks in what is likely his last competitive round at the Birthplace of Golf.

Woods and McIlroy also both live in the Jupiter area and are recent business partners in TMRW Sports, a technology-driven sports company. And while Woods hasn’t been able to play much competitive golf since a serious car crash left him with chronic pain in his legs, he was clear throughout last week at the Hero World Challenge that he still had every shot in the bag. Meanwhile, McIlroy is the No. 1 player in the world and is coming off three wins on the PGA Tour in 2022. See which side to back at SportsLine.

Why Jordan Spieth/Justin Thomas can win The Match 7

Well known as two of the closest friends on the PGA Tour, Thomas and Spieth have been regular partners at the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup over the years and they certainly know each other’s game well. At the 2022 Presidents Cup, the pairing combined to go 4-0 as a team and they also played together twice at the 2021 Ryder Cup and four times at the 2018 Ryder Cup, combining to go 4-2-0.

They regularly travel together on tour and have combined to win 28 tournaments and five major championships despite the fact that both are still in their 20s. Thomas is currently No. 8 in the Official World Golf Ranking while Spieth checks in at No. 14. However, like Woods and currently McIlroy, both are former world No. 1s and both are coming off strong seasons on the PGA Tour. See which side to back at SportsLine.

How to make The Match 2022 picks

McClure has scoured The Match VII odds board and found a critical x-factor that has him jumping all over one side. You can only get his top pick for The Match VII right here.

So who wins The Match VII? Visit SportsLine now to see who you can bank on to win The Match 7, and see where the betting value lies, all from the expert that’s nailed eight golf majors, and find out. 

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