Match Play does not participate in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, but you can play Dell Technologies Bracket Challenge. It’s free and the interface will automatically recognize you if you’re registered with PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Meanwhile, the simultaneously contested Corales Puntacana Championship brings its own spin to the fantasy game, so there are two formats to play this week. As indicated in my schedule below, on Tuesday I will have a separate strength rating for Corales. This week’s Draws and Fades will feature detailed information about your gaming options, as well as reviews of several celebrities who don’t appear in the Corales Power Rating.
This is golf so it would be wrong to try to compare Match Play and the way it is presented to something outside of the sport. Rather the opposite. The non-golf experience should use it as a prime example of how subtle the differences can be when judging talent and when it goes head-to-head on short runways like this one.
For example, the direct relationship to the NCAA basketball tournament – men or women – rests on the fact that there are 64 in a traditional draw. Top seeds in hoops survive and advance exponentially more often than in WGC-Match Play. Note that just last year, John Rahm was the only top seed of the 16 group stages to advance. He survived one more match before being eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Also think about how unlikely it was that half of the lowest seeded players, that is, the eight players ranked 49th-64th on arrival, made it out of the group stage. Four of the players ranked 17-32 survived and three of the players ranked 33-48 got out.
In the first five years the Austin Country Club hosted, the top 24 seeds advanced to the group stage. Of the next three levels, with 16 players each, respectively 20, 17 and 19 played among the seeded places 17-32, 33-48 and 49-64. In no other sport will you see such a fair distribution.
The tournament starts on Wednesday and guarantees each participant three face-to-face matches. Naturally, when a golfer makes a tie, the other player may or may not favor his ability under certain conditions.
Austin CC should start off soft with rain early in the week, but dry out in dry and gradually warming air, sunny skies and gusty winds for at least the first two days. Things will calm down on Friday and Saturday, and then tighten up again before the end of Sunday.
The 53 golfers who have played Match Play at least once in Austin CC will find it familiar. This is the second edition with the latest sand in the bins, so there have been no changes to par 71 in the last year. The course is still 7,108 yards. The single layer of roughness is trimmed to two inches and the seeded TifEagle Bermuda greens are prepared to touch 12 feet on the stimmeter. Only because of the dampness, the road there can take a day or two.
In addition to the usual set of prizes awarded to each champion, this week’s winner will receive 550 FedExCup points and PGA TOUR membership in Category 6 of the tournament. Priority Rating until at least 2024-25.
ROB BOLTON SCHEDULE
Rob Bolton of PGATOUR.com summarizes and views each tournament from different angles. Look for his next contributions as scheduled.
MONDAY: Power Rating (match play)
TUESDAY*: Power Rating (Corals), Draw and Vanish
SUNDAY: Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, shuffling, Rookie Rating
* – Rob is a member of the PGATOUR.COM Expert Panel for the PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, also published on Tuesday.