WGC Dell-Technologies Match Play

Well golf fans it’s been an extremely exciting two weeks. Cam Smith battled the elements and an extremely difficult TPC Sawgrass to claim his first Players Championship. Then last week Sam Burns defended his title at the Valspar at Innisbrook in incredible fashion. Burns beat Davis Riley on the second playoff hole after making a bomb birdie putt to seal his victory. I’ll tell you this, we’ve been spoiled with some jaw dropping golf. This is why golf is so cool because truly anything can happen, players are battling difficult golf courses, the elements and the overall fact that golf is an extremely challenging sport. All this excitement leading up to the Masters in a few weeks is just what golf fans are looking for. We can only hope that the Dell Match Play can provide the same excitement.

This week’s match play event is extremely unique on the PGA Tour. It’s the only match play event on the schedule and with that being said it's probably one of the best events all season. Match play is a completely different type of golf format. This week’s event is set up in bracket format. Players are put into groups of 4, within those groups you play each person once and the player with the most points or best record after all 3 matches moves onto the round of 16. From there its win or go home until somebody is crowned champion. I’m a huge fan of match play because anybody can win more so than your typical week on tour. In match play every hole is a new beginning, for example you can make a 10 on one hole and your opponent makes a par and you would only be down 1 after that hole. Every hole is its own match and whoever is up at the end of the match wins. The players that usually find success in match play or the very aggressive players and the great putters. Players like Jordan Spieth, Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia thrive in events like this. Kisner especially, who is a multiple winner of this event. On top of this event being unique the venue is remarkable. Austin Country Club, in Austin Texas is a top notch facility that allows the players to play extremely aggressively. Typically most of the matches are very exciting. In regards to picking a winner I personally find it’s challenging because anybody can win these matches. Obviously you can pick players that are hot, but that will only take them so far. The other challenging part about this week is the amount of golf. Players will at least play 3 rounds before making it to the top 16. From there they could face 3-4 more rounds of golf. In events like this it comes down to the player that can last the longest without letting fatigue or exhaustion creep in. With all that being said I’m going with Kevin Kisner. Kisner loves this golf course for starters, he’s a great putter and all around short game player and lastly he’s got winning experience in match play. Keep an eye out on Kisner he will make waves and will most certainly come out of his group and make it to the top 16. (Mike)

This week my pick to win is Tyrrell Hatton. I understand that his group is extremely difficult, but I think people are forgetting how good of a player this guy is. He is still top 20 in the world. He was on a Ryder Cup team last year and it’s not that long ago that he won a couple times on tour and looked like the best ball striker on the planet. I think he will find a way to make it out of his group and make a run. The issue with him has always been his demeanor on the course. He has a hard time keeping his emotions and check sometimes and it clearly negatively impacts his game, a lot like John Rahm. Two guys with immense talent that sometimes gets overshadowed by their course anger problems. That being said, I think Tyrell is able to keep his emotions in check this week and find himself victorious on Sunday afternoon.

Unrelated to the WGC this week, it was announced that Phil Mickelson would not be playing in The Masters this year. It is a move that everybody probably expected at this point, but it is still rather crazy that this is the first Masters in my lifetime that Phil Mickelson will not be teeing it up. It makes you wonder if he thinks this little publicity stunt he has done the last few months was worth it at all. I have never been a huge fan of Phil, but the last couple years with the different matches and what not I began to come around to him. I found myself rooting for him last year at the PGA Championship. How quickly it can all fall apart.  However, I believe in comeback stories and I hope he can find his way back onto the tour because he is a great personality, but there are clearly a lot of things he needs to work out before that can happen. (Tyler)