WGC Dell Technologies Match Play/Corales Puntacana Championship

It’s been an unreal couple weeks on tour, between Scottie Scheffler’s Players Championship victory and last week’s nailbiter ending in Taylor Moore’s first victory, golf is at an all time high. This week on tour the format changes from the traditional week in and week out format. This week the format is head to head match play, but before we get to this week’s events, a lot has happened in the golf world in the past week. 

First and foremost is LIV Golf. LIV has finished up its second event of the year in Tucson and it's safe to say things are not going as planned for LIV golf. The only thing keeping LIV relevant is their top tier players, Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, etc. Aside from Dustin’s incredible first season last year on LIV, Cam Bryson Brooks as well as the other top players LIV has recruited are playing well beneath their playing abilities especially Bryson who hasn’t even sniffed a top 10 and let’s not forget there are 48 players in the field. On top of the fact that LIV’s top players aren’t playing well, it seems that many people aren’t attending the events or watching the broadcast as well. It should be interesting to see what unfolds for LIV in the coming weeks and how the PGA Tour will respond in the future. Another response that is needed from the PGA Tour soon is going to be their decision on the USGA and R&A proposed rollback plan for the golf ball. 

This was big news for the golf community and it has really shocked almost all of the golf community. These governing bodies are proposing a plan that would roll back the golf ball making it fly 10-20 yards less for elite players. CEO of the USGA Mike Whan believes that the “next generation of golfers will suffer if a rollback plan isn’t put in place.” Now, these rules, and regulations won’t happen until 2026 and that’s even if it happens. Since the announcement a week ago players across all tours have voiced their opinions and consensus is that not a single player is happy about it. Not only are the players not thrilled but the golf ball companies are not happy as well. These proposed plans will force these companies to spend millions more in R&D in order to create balls that meet the criteria and on top of that these balls won’t be sold to the public or average player because the rollback regulations won’t apply. There is plenty of time before anything goes into effect but it seems that golf as we know it is going through a major change once again. Despite these looming changes we have a great slate of events happening this week. 

Like many other major weeks on tour the PGA Tour holds two events simultaneously. This week Austin Country Club hosts the WGC Dell Match Play and The Corales Puntacana Championship in Punta Cana. The Dell Match Play will host the top 64 players while the Puntacana Championship will host the players that fell outside the top 64 in the world golf rankings. In the match play event it’s always difficult to pick out winners due to the fact that match play is vastly different from stroke play. For example, one player can make a 10 on the first hole and your opponent could make a three and after the first hole you would only be one down in the match whereas in stroke play you’d already be seven shots behind. It also allows players that aren’t as good as the top players to win. In the end, to be successful in match play a few things need to be done, you need to make a lot of putts, especially five to six footers for par, players need to not worry about playing safe or conservative, and instead of playing the golf course like players normally do they need to play their opponent and base every decision on what their opponent is doing. This week a few players to keep an eye out for are Kevin Kisner who has played historically well at this event, Jason Day who has pretty much revived his career and has notched numerous top 20s thus far this year, and Max Homa who has had a lot of success in match play. As only Scottie Scheffler, the reigning champ of this event is always a safe bet but I’m not fully sold on the idea of him repeating this year. Now onto the real event of the week. 

Opposite field events otherwise known as “oppo field events” are personally my favorite. These events showcase the young fresh unseen talent that will ultimately find themselves on the big stage one day, but right now they are just small fish in a big pond. Another reason why these oppo field events are so great is because careers are made here. At the match play it's just the rich getting richer but in Punta Cana, there’s a young pro whose life will be changed in ways they can’t imagine. I never speculate or make picks for the oppo field events because it's also a toss up on who gets hot at the right time but I will say that these events provide some really great golf. I encourage any and everybody to tune into these young new players who are on the brink of being great. (Mike)

I really love the first few days of the match play event. There are some fun matchups to see and there is a ridiculous amount of golf on because of all the matches being played. As the tournament goes on, the field obviously becomes smaller in a tournament like this. This is where I seem to lose interest as the viewer. There is very little golf shown and a lot of garbage to fill the time. I would love to see the tournament at its new host site next year and find a way to have some more matches going on during the weekend. The Tour is pushing for its big names to be competing more against one another and this seems like another incredible opportunity to do so.

My pick to win at the Match Play is Collin Morikawa. I think he will make a splash return back to the winners circle after some near misses and horrible collapses. A ball striker like him is someone I favor big time in a match play event. My pick to win down in Punta Cana is Chad Ramey. He has been playing very well lately and is the defending champ. I like him to go back to back. (Tyler)