Tournament Preview - WGC Dell Match Play

Tournament Preview - WGC Dell Match Play

We move away from Florida and to Austin, TX for the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play event. 64 golfers are competing in a bracket style match play event for a top prize of $3.5m to the winner of the overall $20m purse. This is the last year of the WGC so I'm sure it'll go out with a bang. One of the best memories of this event was in 2006 when Stephen Ames played Tiger Woods. Stephen talked some 💩 before the round and Tiger promptly beat him 9&8. Yikes Stephen.

The 64 players are broken up into sixteen pools and four sub-groups (A, B, C, D) based on their rankings. Each pool includes an A, B, C, and D player. Unlike other match play events that are single elimination, each golfer will play the others in their pool, and then the golfer with the best record moves into the bracket. All 64 golfers will get paid this week too. Minimum pay is $65k. Not too shabby.

Scottie Scheffler won last year and back to defend his title. He is the odds favorite at +800. Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, and more are all competing. LIV Golfer Patrick Reed tried to sign up but was denied entry. Speaking of Rory, there were some rumblings that he is making an equipment change and at least his updated putter is confirmed.

Weather

Austin in March is normally pretty pleasant. Temperatures will range from 50s-80s with some storms possible.

The tournament socials can be found here for Twitter, Instagram, and their own website.

ESPN Plus starting at 10:15am ESTGolf Channel starting at 2:00pm EST

The full field including tee times and groupings is found here. 64 total players with many of the top of the top. Justin Thomas is probably the biggest name missing.

• Previous Winners in this week's field:

  • Scottie Scheffler - 2022

  • Billy Horschel - 2021

  • Kevin Kisner - 2019

  • Jason Day - 2016, 2014

  • Rory McIlroy - 2015

  • Matt Kuchar - 2013

• Notable previous winners absent:

  • Bubba Watson - 2018 (LIV)

  • Dustin Johnson - 2017 (LIV)

Betting Odds provided by Bovada.lv at this link (not sponsored)Some notable players to consider:

• Scottie Scheffler - +800 - trying to go back to back

• Max Homa - +2200 - after a week off, should be rested and ready to play well

• Tommy Fleetwood - +4000 - coming off a solid week and could keep the momentum going

• Austin Country Club is a private club founded in 1899. But, the location has been moved three times, with the current location being the last and designed by Pete Dye.

• The second location spawned Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite, who were coached by Harvey Penick. Pretty good roster to include.

• The initiation fee was thought to be around $100k most recently. There is a reported waiting list greater than 15 years long.

• The most popular hole - the short Par 3 17th - is often overlooked as most matches don't make it to the hole.

  • Also, fun fact, the membership plays this hole as their 8th holes instead of 17. Seems like the flip the 9s for the WGC.

Notes and News

• Webb Simpson broke up with his longtime caddy after last week (twitter)

• LIV Golf is going through some growing pains. Fire Pit Collective did a very in depth article on the current issues (article)

• This Twitter thread has some valid points on the PGA Tour potentially opening back up to LIV golfers (twitter)

• Good Good Golf opened up a professional event with a $100k purse (twitter)

Twitter Roundup

May your rounds be filled with #oneputts.