From March 23
From: Eric Schlegel (USA TODAY Sports)
One of the more exciting and fun tournaments of the year takes place this weekend with the Dell Technologies Match Play Championship. The tournament takes place at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas. Golfers from the state of Texas will undoubtedly be given an advantage due to the higher winds that will favor players with lower ball flights and are used to the playing conditions in Texas. This tournament has one of the more unique formats for many of the PGA Tour events. This tournament is different than most other tournaments with this tournament being played in a matchplay with a “tournament format”. The Matchplay format allows for one point to be awarded to the golfer whenever he gets a lower score than his opponent. This allows for bad holes to essentially be wiped away as it is the same as losing by one stroke on that hole. At the end of the round, the player who has more points is the winner of the matchup. This tournament ranks the golfers 1-64 based on their respective world golf rankings. It then works in a tournament format where each golfer plays with one other opponent with only the two winners of each group advancing. This will continue throughout the weekend until two remain with the winner taking home the championship. This is one of the more star-studded fields for the non-majors with 64 of the top 77 players in the world golf rankings. Some of the notable names this weekend are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, and Colin Morikawa. Jon Rahm vs. Rickie Fowler is the top first-round matchup, but other notable matches are Victor Hovland vs. Matt Kuchar, Rory McIlroy vs. Scott Stallings, and Hideki Matsuyama vs. Kevin Kisner. Scottie Scheffler opens up as the clear favorite this week after an impressive showing at The Players Championship two weeks ago. He is also the reigning champ for this tournament, which was also played at Austin Country Club. If he was able to win this last year, you can bet he can repeat this year. Other more favored players who have experience playing in Texas are Jordan Spieth and Sam Burns.
My Pick: Scottie Scheffler (+800) - Highest odds to win, however, has shown that he can win at this event and at this course.
Value Pick: Jordan Spieth (+1600) - Another Texas kid who has valuable experience playing in these conditions and is still looking for his first win of the season to climb in the FedEx Cup standings.
Hail Mary Pick: Scott Stallings (+19000) - Looking for his first PGA Tour win since 2013, and with the second-worst odds, he has only missed the cut in three of his last 12 events. He is a good value pick for this week.