This week we have the first WGC event for the season. This will be the fourteenth edition of the Accenture Match Play Championship which is being held at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain, Marana, Arizona from 22nd-26th Feb.
This will be the 4 year that the event will be played here.
The course is a Par 72, with Bentgrass greens, it has 89 sand bunkers and measures 7833 yards making it the longest course on the PGA tour. This however is a little misleading as it is played at a 3,500 foot elevation. The course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and was opened in 2008. The toughest hole is the Hole 3 which is a par 3 and has a water hazard to the right of the hole. It is surrounded by bunkers and the green slopes from left to right and down towards the water, so look for the hole to claim a few scalps this week.
The Championship is a single elimination match play event. The Top 64 players on the World golf rankings are invited to play. This year we have 62 of those 64 playing, with the exception being Phil Mickelson and Paul Casey. They have been replaced by Ernie Els and George Coetzee. The first round commences on the Wednesday with the 32 winners then playing on the Thursday. The last 16 then play on the Friday. This leaves 8 players in the Quarter Finals on the Saturday morning with the Semi Finals in the afternoon. The Championship is then decided on the Sunday along with the play off for 3rd place.
The players are placed into 4 bracketed groups. These are named after 4 of the legends of golf. Bobby Jones, Gary Player, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. It is very much like the set up for a tennis tournament with the winner going through to the next round.
When trying to look for the winner of this type of event you need to look at the players form when it comes to match play along with singles records in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. Match Play is a lot different to the normal PGA Tour event. Some guys love it, others not so much.
Looking at the bracket this year we have some excellent first round matches which will be well worth watching. There is the Spanish dual of Garcia v Jiminez, battle of the Swedes with Karlsson v Jacobson, battle of the bomber Johnson v precise Furyk. The list goes on!!!
Tiger Woods makes his second appearance of the season this week. He is in the Snead bracket and for the first time in his Accenture match play career he is not the top seed. That has gone to Lee Westwood. Tiger has reached the final of this event 4 times and has won it 3 times. (2003,2004, 2008). He meets the Spaniard Fdez-Castano first up then meets the winner of the Watney/Clarke match the next day. He is currently the $13 equal favourite and with a record of 32-8 from 11 appearances it would be a brave man to leave him out of contention.
When it comes to match play there are a few guys who love the format and should be looked at closely when doing your form this week.
Ian Poulter won this event in 2010 and has a record of 18-8 and at $31.00 he could be a good chance to repeat his efforts from two years ago. The only down side is that he is in the Gary Player bracket with guys like McIlroy, Garcia and Schwartzel. It’s a tough group of players. Geoff Ogilvy is also in this group and boasts a record of 20-4. He has won this event in 2009 and 2006 as well as being a runner up in 2007.
A better idea would be to back the Gary Player bracket as the winning bracket at $3.30 with Sportsbet Australia.
Looking at the rest of the field I have decided to take a player from each side of the draw to give us a good run for our money and a chance of getting two guys into the final match up without meeting each other in the early rounds.
Matt is in the Ben Hogan bracket and will meet Jonathon Byrd in the first round. He will then meet the winner of the Watson/Crane match. All going to plan he will then meet Martin Kaymer before heading to the quarter finals.He has a record here of 6-2 and was beaten last year in the semi final by eventual winner Luke Donald before going on to beat Bubba Watson in the consolation match to finish 3rd.
Odds to Win Hogan Bracket: $11.50 Sportsbet Australia
Odds to Win WGC: $41.00 Sportsbet Australia
Sergio has had a great start to his season with a 12th at the HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi, 5th in the Qatar Masters and last week he started his PGA tour season off with an excellent T4th in the Northern Trust Open which included a closing 64. He has had 9 appearances here and has a record of 12-10. He is a very accomplished Ryder Cup player and enjoys match play golf. The Gary Player bracket is a tough one however Sergio is playing with a lot of confidence at the moment and this week could see him rise to the top.
Odds to Win Gary Player Bracket: $7.40 Sportsbet Australia
Odds to Win WGC: $19.00 Sportsbet Australia
Last Week:
What a great finish we had to the Northern Trust Open with Bill Haas winning a three way play off Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley. Mickelson should have won the event by 5 shots after missing a lot of putts that he should of sunk. It was also great to see 4 Aussies finish in the Top 20.
Next Week:
We head to Florida for the Honda Classic where Rory Sabbatini is the defending Champion.
Good Luck and Good Punting
