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HSBC World Match Play Championship .

The best golf – and the event that’s the most fun to wager on – is across the pond this week at the HSBC World Match Play Championships at Wentworth in England.

Tiger Woods is in the field for the first time since 1998, and the prize money is staggering. The winner in this 16-man event walks away with a cool $1.7 million.

Plus, it’s match play, man-to-man, just a week before the Ryder Cup. You can’t beat it for great theater. And it’s live on The Golf Channel all week, so it’s always great to be able to wake up to golf in the morning.

Woods is the favorite, of course, considering he has won five events in a row and seems to have everyone intimidated.

But watch out for Jim Furyk this week. He won the Canadian Open last week and is in perfect form going into the Ryder Cup. The second half of his year has been great.

"It's been a great year, and I still have some events left, so hopefully I can keep riding the wave and finish it out well." Furyk said after his victory.

Furyk's victory Sunday at the Canadian Open was the 12th of his PGA Tour career and his second this year. He also won twice in 2003, the year he won his only major at Olympia Fields in the U.S. Open

Furyk has been Mr. Steady lately. He has 10 top-four finishes in 21 events this year and is second to Woods on the money list.

Furyk, who passed Phil Mickelson for second place behind Woods in the official World Golf Ranking, is seeded third this week and will play Sweden’s Robert Karlsson on Thursday in the event, which requires 36-hole matches. From there, it is on to the Ryder Cup next week, where he is expected to partner with Woods several times.

"There's going to be a lot of pressure at the Ryder Cup, and any time you can put yourself in contention, get comfortable, do something well, I'll take that experience with me and it will help out at the Ryder Cup," Furyk said. "Hopefully, it will help a lot."

Furyk is a bulldog in match-play situations, which is why I like him so much this week. He’ll take a lot of pride in the new No. 2 ranking and will likely show it off this week.

This season has been special – and it could have been even better. He missed a 5-foot par putt on the 72nd hole at Winged Foot that would have put him in a playoff with eventual U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. That got lost in the collapses of Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie. He finished fourth at the British Open and third at the Bridgestone Invitational. Of course, Woods was the winner of those events.

"We talked about the last seven events, I've been in the top four six times, so I guess if my approach were better, I'd have more than one win in one of those," Furyk said. "I think everyone goes through streaks and times where hopefully you get on a good run, you close out some tournaments, you get some wins, but it's a humbling game."

Especially with Woods playing so well. And after Woods, it seems like no one’s playing any better than Furyk.

Furyk is a -$225 favorite at WagerWeb.com to beat Karlsson in the opener (and +1000 to win the whole thing), a big number but one certainly well worth taking. This is a hot streak worth riding.

Woods is -$800 against Shaun Micheel, which is a daring number, but can you really imagine Tiger losing? He’s primed for this three-week stretch through Europe, and I can’t imagine him losing to anyone.

Most of the rest of the other first-round matches are more even, and the two players I like to advance the most are Ernie Els, who’s playing on one of his home courses, and Luke Donald. Both could make nice runs.