Where should the tour take the match-play tournament next? There are many worthy candidates, but we’ve narrowed it down to 15 venues that lend themselves to the format and deserve a regular tour stop. Sure, some of these are ambitious, but an exclusive course rarely seen on TV would reinvigorate an event that has battled an identity crisis in recent years.

Ohoopee Match Club

Dom Furore

We’re not sure how tour players would react to the unconventional nature of this built-for-match-play venue. But we’d love to see it. Three holes are listed on the scorecard, perhaps whimsically, as par 4.5s instead of par 5s, and members and their guests can play different 18-hole routings across this 22-hole design. Of course, the club is super private, and we’re not sure they’d be game to host a tour event … but hey, Congaree Golf Club hosts a tour event, and they’re just as private.

Bandon Dunes

USGA

Though the beloved six-course resort along the rugged Oregon coast has hosted numerous USGA championships, we concede it would be a bit of a logistical challenge to host a top tour event. That said, if we approach a match-play tournament at Bandon as a made-for-TV spectacle rather than one with thousands of fans lining the fairways, the intrigue becomes clear. The format and course combinations to be used are endless. Mix it up. Perhaps three rounds of stroke-play qualifying on Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes and Bandon Trails. Heck, we’ve got a tie for the last match-play spots? Head over to the Preserve, a wild par-3 test typically reserved for sunset matches among the common folk.
We’re torn on which course takes the match play honours, but the drivable 16th hugging the coast at Bandon Dunes might tip the scale in the original layout’s favour. The PGA Tour Match Play isn’t supposed to be like any other week, and sending it out to Bandon and getting creative with the format would reenergize the tournament and showcase arguably the best golf resort in the country.

Inverness Club

Andy Johnson

An old-school Donald Ross design that can tip out at 7,700 yards, Inverness provides a compelling modern test on a historic layout that was restored by Andrew Green ahead of the 2019 US Junior Amateur. Studying Ross’ original drawings and early photography, Green repositioned some putting surfaces, reworked bunkers and added three new holes which replaced ones designed by George and Tom Fazio in the 1970s. The result is a design that better reflects Ross’ vision and makes creative use of the unique topography, with humps and hollows creating plenty of interesting shots. The course has hosted four US Opens (the last in 1979) and most recently held the 2021 Solheim Cup, which proved the layout’s match-play merits and saw impressive fan turnout north of 100,000 people.

Trinity Forest GC

Courtesy Trinity Forest

One of golf’s great modern courses with a ton of width, options and strategic architecture can be found at Coore and Crenshaw’s Trinity Forest. It had a brief stint of hosting the AT&T Byron Nelson, but extremely hot weather in Dallas in May and a lack of sufficient infrastructure doomed the event. Perhaps a better time of year, and an event requiring a smaller footprint is the right combination to bring Trinity Forest back to the PGA Tour.

Medinah No. 3

Stephen Szurlej

A highly anticipated renovation by Geoff Ogilvy and his design partners Michael Cocking and Ashley Mead is expected to return the venerable Chicago design to being one of our nation’s great championship tests. The work will include three entirely new holes and the reinstitution of more angles and options with fewer trees to better challenge decision-making, which would once again make it a great match-play layout, as it was for the 2012 Ryder Cup. The former major venue is slated to host the 2026 Presidents Cup, so it’s already under the PGA Tour umbrella.

Whistling Straits

Getty Images

Pete Dye’s bold, in-your-face design philosophy lends itself to the risks and rewards of match play, especially at Whistling Straits, as shown with the entertaining — if uncompetitive — 2021 Ryder Cup. Remember that insane Jordan Spieth hacking flop shot from 12-feet below the green at the par-3 17th? It’s these recoveries that the Straits course — with its dramatic fall-offs and rugged bunkering — allows for, especially when players take on a little more trouble than they ordinarily would in stroke play.

Pinehurst No. 2

Dom Furore

The Sandhills of North Carolina is one of the most popular golf regions in the country and is deserving of a regular tour stop. Sure, Pinehurst’s famed No. 2 is set to host five US Opens over the next quarter-century — including in 2024 — but we’re greedy and want to see the world’s best navigate the diabolical tabletop greens on a regular basis. A strong match-play course presents plenty of risk-reward opportunities, and while No. 2 is pretty straightforward off the tee, pins tucked toward the edges of greens will require precise approach play to avoid testy chips.
We’d love to see an LPGA match-play event contested the same week on the Gil Hanse revamped No. 4 course. With fans being able to move from one course to the other, it would be a great opportunity to showcase both tours and arguably the two best Sandhills courses. Remember way back in 2014, No. 2 successfully hosted the US Open and US Women’s Open in back-to-back weeks, so they’ll have a head start on logistics.

Eugene CC

John Giustina

Oregon Duck Aaron Wise won the 2016 NCAA individual title at his home course, before Longhorn Scottie Scheffler beat him in the finals of the team championship, so we’re betting those guys won’t take issue with this idea. Oregon won that week, in what was a wild finish with the raucous home crowd, and overall, the course was praised for providing a fair and challenging test. A 2021 renovation made the course more thought-provoking through the shifting of tees, remodelling of bunkers, the expansion of greens that bring more hole locations into play and a renewed emphasis on using the unique ground contours and swales as more strategically influential factors. The towering Douglas fir trees still frame each hole and influence much of a golfer’s strategy from tee to green.

PGA National Resort: Champion

PGA National Resort

Speaking of lost events on the schedule, the Honda Classic was likely contested at PGA National for a final time this year. If another stroke-play event doesn’t return to the Champion course, we’d love to see a return to match play at PGA National, site of the 1983 Ryder Cup. The layout would make for compelling matches in modern times — with the cliche but challenging Bear Trap providing some tough pars while also offering birdie holes at the start and middle of the routing. It’s worth noting the resort has a new Match course, too, which might not work strategically but could make for some fun playoff solutions.

Scottsdale National

Joann Dost

Former Fazio associates Tim Jackson and David Kahn devised a fun routing with three par 5s, three par 4s and three par 3s on each nine — a perfect set-up for match play. A ton of width and variety offers options off the tee, but precision is required into these undulating green complexes at the very private club owned by PXG founder Bob Parsons. To really spice things up: The tour could add a few holes (maybe for playoff purposes) on the notourious Bad Little Nine.

The Lido

The Lido

One of the most highly anticipated course openings of the modern era, The Lido will have course aficionados clamouring to play the recreation of the world-renowned Long Island course built by CB Macdonald. And what a thrill it would be to watch the world’s best tackle this strategic test. Tom Doak recreated every hump and bump from the legendary links by studying old imagery and capturing it in 3D thanks to golf historian Peter Flory. Bringing a tour event here would shine the light on everything that makes course design such a fascinating pursuit and to Sand Valley, a destination helping to put Wisconsin at the top of any enthusiast’s bucket list.

Hamilton Farm GC (Highlands)

Dana Fry

With the longtime FedEx Cup Playoff event leaving the NYC-metro area, we’d like to see a regular tour stop return to this golf-hungry market. Hamilton Farm, about 50 miles west of Manhattan, might be unknown to some, but the Dana Fry- and Michael Hurdzan-designed Highlands course hosted the LPGA Tour’s match-play event from 2010-12. A 2022 renovation removed hundreds of trees to better show off the hilly 730-acre property, which would make a great test for the world’s best.

Shadow Creek

Shadow Creek

Shadow Creek has hosted a few big-time match-play events recently — hosting the first edition of The Match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for that massive $9 million pay day. The LPGA Tour also visits the jaw-dropping Tom Fazio design for its only match-play event. It’s a course that settles big-money wagers on a daily basis for the high-rollers of Vegas, with a great risk-reward par-5 16th, the picturesque par-3 17th and another par-5 finisher — so it’d be a proper host of a PGA Tour event, too, like it did in 2021 for the CJ Cup.

We’ve given our realistic hopes for where the tour could send its match-play event, now indulge us in a little wishful thinking.

Cypress Point

Cypress Point

Is the iconic Alister MacKenzie coastal California layout long enough to host a tour event? Probably not. The course doesn’t sniff 7,000 yards, but in match play, does it really matter how deep the pros are taking it? (For the record, the current match-play host, Austin Country Club, plays only 7,100 yards at its longest and surrenders birdies by the dozen.) And it’s not like Cypress Point is without challenge. Here’s how our architecture emeritus, Ron Whitten, defends the course to naysayers who argue distance gains have rendered it defenceless.
“Certainly one way to play Cypress is the full-bore, take-dead-aim, grip-it-and-rip-it, bomb-and-gouge approach. But it’s also a course where finesse still matters, where course management is still rewarded. Yes, long bombers can go low at Cypress Point these days, but so can short-hitting, thoughtful players, who much like sailors in a storm tack their way around bunkers, trees, dunes and ocean coves. And when the winds come up, as they often do at Cypress, it’s the latter approach that’s likely to be more successful.”
A match-play event is our best (and only) chance to see the top players compete on one of our nation’s greatest courses, and though the exclusive private club might object to such exposure, it would help give the event the unique allure it needs to justify its place on the tour schedule. Wind blowing, sun setting, match on the line heading to the 233-yard par-3 16th, perhaps the most famous hole in golf? Decent TV.

National Golf Links of America

National Golf Links of America

Another improbable, though not unrealistic proposal would be to send the PGA Tour Match Play to eastern Long Island and one of the nation’s most historic layouts. CB Macdonald set out to build a course that would not just take inspiration from the great courses of the UK and Europe but rival them. The result is a group of template holes — Road Hole, Eden, Redan and Sahara among them — that prove comparable, if not superior to their Old World originals. Though the course, tipping out just over 6,900 yards, is not long enough by tour standards, it did hold up in hosting the 2013 Walker Cup. Throw in the coastal breeze on this exposed links, and we’re confident it would provide a strong match-play test

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“It was very exhausting,” said the 26-year-old Louisiana native after grabbing his fifth career PGA Tour title, making an impressive 48 birdies over 119 total holes in Texas.

For that effort, however, Burns gets to enjoy a substantial reward. The last edition of this event at Austin CC is also one of the PGA Tour’s designated events for 2023, which means the overall prize money payout jumped from its previously impressive $12 million to $20 million. Burns grabbed a first-place prize money payout of $3.5 million, up from the $2.1 million Scottie Scheffler earned for his win a year ago. Young claimed $2.2 million for his runner-up effort. Indeed, if you made it to Sunday, you guaranteed yourself a seven-figure pay day.

Win: Sam Burns, $3,500,000
2: Cameron Young, $2,200,000
3: Rory McIlroy, $1,420,000
4: Scottie Scheffler, $1,145,000
Quarter-finalists: $770,000
Mackenzie Hughes
Jason Day
Xander Schauffele
Kurt Kitayama
Round of 16: $365,000
Max Homa
Patrick Cantlay
Matt Kuchar
JT Poston
JJ Spaun
Lucas Herbert
Andrew Putnam
Billy Horschel
T-17: 2 points (2-1), $219,909
Rickie Fowler
Brian Harman
Cam Davis
Ryan Fox
Si Woo Kim
Tony FInay
Adrian Meronk
Taylor Montgomery
Russell Henley
Corey Conners
Sungjae Im
T-28: 1.5 points (1-1-1), $166,000
Davis Riley
Keegan Bradley
Collin Morikawa
T-31: 1 point (1-2-0), $113,761
Tom Kim
Jon Rahm
Scott Stallings
Nick Taylor
Hideki Matsuyama
Kevin Kisner
Justin Suh
Aaron Wise
Harris English
Viktor Hovland
Victor Perez
Matt Fitzpatrick
Min Wo Lee
Sahith Theegala
Jordan Spieth
Shane Lowry
Seamus Power
Adam Scott
Adam Hadwin
Ben Griffin
Davis Thompson
T-52: .5 points (0-2-1), $74,857
Alex Noren
Keith Mitchell
Denny McCarthy
Chris Kirk
Adam Svensson
Tommy Fleetwood
Maverick McNealy
T-59: 0 points (0-3-0), $67,500
KH Lee
Tom Hoge
Will Zalatoris
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Tyrrell Hatton
Sepp Straka

The post Here’s the prize money payout for each golfers at the 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It was the match most golf fans wanted to see, it was just slotted in a different position. Rather than watching World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler square off against World No. 3 Rory McIlroy in the championship match of the last WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on Sunday at Austin Country Club, the golf world saw the heavyweights in the consolation match doing battle for a bronze medal.

It’s better than not having the match at all.

While third place is not anything that Scheffler and McIlroy particularly care about, winning the match is better than losing it. Here in Texas, the last time both will hit a competitive golf shot until Thursday at the Masters, neither man played his best golf of the week. McIlroy birdied Nos. 3, 4 and 5 to jump 3 up and never trailed, winning 2 and 1.

In the waning moments of the morning semi-finals it seemed destined that this match would be of the championship variety. McIlroy was 2 up against Cameron Young after 15 holes and ended up losing on the first playoff hole. Although Scheffler was 3 down after three holes against eventual champion Sam Burns, he rebounded to take a 2-up lead after 12 holes and squandered that, losing on the 21st hole.

After a brief lunch break, McIlroy and Scheffler went off first in the most star-studded consolation match in the history of this event, which is not on the PGA Tour schedule after this year. Overall, Scheffler made five birdies and a bogey, while McIlroy made an eagle, five birdies and two bogeys. Again, fine play, but not their best.

“We were trading a few bogeys here and there, it was a bit of a pillow fight in the middle of the round,” McIlroy said, “then we traded some birdies at the end.”

Rory McIlroy. Mike Mulholland

When McIlroy made eagle from 18 feet on the par-5 12th he jumped to 2 up. Scheffler made birdie on the next hole to cut into the deficit but McIlroy made another birdie on 14 from 20 feet. They traded birdies over the next two holes, but when they both made par on the par-3 17th the match, the long week and the long day mercifully were over.

“This afternoon, I just had some trouble focusing,” Scheffler said. “I like to show up and do my best, but it was definitely a challenge this afternoon. It was a weird feeling playing for third place. But at the end of the day, you got to show up and hit the shots.”

There’s a bit of history between these two already as McIlroy erased a six-shot lead during the final round of the Tour Championship last year to snatch the FedEx Cup from Scheffler. The two also were paired together two weeks ago at the Players Championship, where Scheffler went on to win convincingly and McIlroy missed the cut by three shots.

Next up? The Masters, where both will be among the pre-tournament favourites. Scheffler is the defending champion, and McIlroy is desperately searching for the last piece of a career Grand Slam. Although Scheffler lost to McIlroy this week he remains No. 1 in the world and will enter the year’s first major with two victories this year. McIlroy will jump Jon Rahm to No. 2 in the world and although he hasn’t won a PGA Tour event, he did win in Dubai earlier this year and had near misses at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Match Play. He also switched putters earlier this week — going to a Scotty Cameron by Titleist blade — and put in a shorter shaft on his driver, hoping to reduce the chances of a two-way miss. He wanted a few rounds of competition with the new tweaks so there would be no doubts in two weeks.

“I feel a lot better about things compared to this time a couple weeks ago, after the Players Championship” McIlroy said. “All eyes on Augusta and making sure the game is ready.”

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There’s an old cliché that 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in sports; it originated with European football, you hear it all the time in reference to ice hockey, and it even has its own Wikipedia page. The idea is that the extra cushion leads to complacency, and whether that’s right, we have absolutely seen enough at this year’s WGC-Dell Match Play to come up with our own golf variation:

“Being 2-up on Scottie Scheffler is the most dangerous lead in golf.”

Early on the back nine in Sunday’s semi-final round, Sam Burns seemed to be learning that lesson the hard way. As of last night, Scheffler was the first person in the history of the event to make three straight semi-finals, and the crazy thing is, the man has only played this thing three times. There’s something even wilder, though — in his last four matches, he’s come back from at least a 2-down deficit every time.

It started with his final group-stage match Friday against Tom Kim, when he lost the first two holes to the Presidents Cup breakout star. That didn’t last long; by the fifth hole, Scheffler was 1-up, and remained steady to win 3 and 2. Next, in the Round of 16 on Saturday, he was actually two holes behind JT Poston on the back nine, and looked to be in real trouble standing on the 15th tee 2 down. That’s when he reeled off three straight birdies to tie the match, then won on 18 when Poston made bogey. That afternoon, in the quarter-finals, Jason Day came out guns blazing and took a 3-up lead on Scheffler after six holes. Yet again, Scheffler withstood the body blows and surged after the turn, eventually closing Day out with a near-ace on 17.

Which brings us to Sunday morning and the semi-final with Burns. You’ll never guess what happened …

… OK, you guessed it. Burns won the first three holes, seemed to have Scheffler running scared, and then watched the World No. 1 reel off four birdies in a stretch of five holes. This comeback was somehow even more swift and sudden than the others, and by the 12th hole, Scheffler was already 2 up.

That’s the moment when Burns decided he wasn’t going to be the latest chapter in the Scheffler comeback narrative … or if he was, he wasn’t going to make it easy. On 13, the short par 4 at Austin Country Club that tends to transform matches, he buried his nine-foot birdie putt to steal a hole back. On 15, his irons starting to catch fire, he hit his approach to five feet for yet another birdie and a tied match.

Meanwhile, Scheffler had begun to leave his approach shots short, and wasn’t able to convert a string of long putts. Burns achieved the full re-reversal on 17, the par 3, when Burns gave Scheffler a taste of his own medicine by hitting a near-ace.

What a shot from @SamBurns66 ?

He’s now 1-up with one to play @DellMatchPlay. pic.twitter.com/WJ1rvHpQOQ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 26, 2023

His birdie conceded, Scheffler yet again missed a long putt. Burns had one hole to survive, and after both men hit terrific drives to the valley just ahead of the 18th green, Burns had a birdie attempt to win the match … and missed. Scheffler, of course, made birdie to extend the match, and after the two tied the first playoff hole, Scheffler’s lay-up stopped five feet from the hole. Burns missed a longer birdie, but Scheffler shockingly missed his as well that would have seen through to a third straight final. Burns secured victory on the 21st hole of the match with a tremendous shot out of the bunker on the 14th hole and then holing this birdie putt:

.@SamBurns66 for the win ?

After 21 holes, Burns defeats Scheffler and will face Cameron Young in the championship @DellMatchPlay. pic.twitter.com/AWZIDIoj49

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 26, 2023

It looked for all the world like Scheffler was pulling a Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope — his opponent comes out swinging, Scheffler bobs and weaves, gets hit once in a while, but never critically, and at a certain point when his opponent seems to have punched himself out, that’s when the onslaught begins—but Burns took the incredible resilience that defines the World No. 1, and somehow outmatched him.

As it turns out, we are going to get the dream final of Scheffler v Rory McIlroy, but it’s going to be in the third-place match. Burns, along with Cameron Young, endured the biggest punches from one of the great match play talents, and survived to make the final.

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Rory McIlroy reacts after making birdie on the 18th hole to beat Xander Schauffele 1 up in the quarter-finals of the WGC-Match Play. Harry How

Someday, when we’re talking about the old WGC-Match Play events and remembering all the winners, it will be worth taking a moment to recall the hot Saturday afternoon in 2023 when, minutes apart, Scottie Scheffler ended his quarter-final match against Jason Day with a near-ace and Rory McIlroy buried a 12-foot birdie on 18 to advance against Xander Schauffele.

Cameron Young, with new caddie Paul Tesori on his bag, has reached the Match Play semifinals for the first time. Mike Mulholland

Perhaps we’ll be able to say they were on a path for a poetic meeting in the last Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club. Or perhaps not — we’ll have to wait until Sunday and their semi-final matches to know for sure. Regardless, it was the kind of conclusion, amid a crowd brimming with energy and a certain debauched spirit, that this tournament seems to deliver on a regular basis, even as its detractors moan about TV-unfriendly weekend hypotheticals that never seem to happen.

Of all those tremendous weekends past, this might have been the most rewarding quarter-final finale yet: the World No. 1, Scheffler, came from 3-down to beat Day, McIlroy outduelled Xander Schauffele in a tremendous Ryder Cup rematch, Sam Burns defeated Mackenzie Hughes 3 and 2, and Cameron Young led for all but the first three holes in beating Kurt Kitayama 1 up.

On Sunday, Scheffler takes on Burns, one of his closest friends on the PGA Tour, and McIlroy draws Young- — and the large portion of the crowd will no doubt be rooting for a dream final between the defending Match Play champion and Texas alum in Scheffler and World No. 2 McIlroy, who holds four major championship titles and won the 2015 Match Play.

It didn’t look good for that possibly final early in the quarters. Day, newly rejuvenated and very much back in top match-play form, followed up his morning victory against Matt Kuchar — a win that denied Kuchar the outright match wins record over Tiger Woods — by winning four of the first six holes against Scheffler.

“There’s not much you can do,” Scheffler said of the start. “I think he birdied 1 and birdied 4, 5, and then eagled 6. So it’s, like, hey, man, if you’re going to do that, then tip my cap to you; that’s just good golf and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. If he was to keep up that pace for the whole round, I would just say the same thing; just take my hat off, shake hands and tell him great job.”

Scottie Scheffler going right at it to win the match ? pic.twitter.com/rEYQEgfE9n

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 25, 2023

At that point, Day sought medical attention for an issue that was initially reported as vertigo, but later changed to allergies. Whether it was feeling poorly that halted his momentum, or whether he was bound to cool off, Day cooled off. He made bogey on 8, Scheffler buried a 29-foot birdie on 9, and though Day held him off for a couple more holes, Scheffler’s birdies on 12 and 13 gave him his first lead of the match. Then Day yanked his approach on 14 almost into the water, and gave another hole to Scheffler, and the World No. 1 hit perhaps his most important shot of the match on the par-4 15th, burying an eight-foot birdie putt with Day just four feet away. They split that hole and traded birdies again on 16 before Scheffler’s dynamic shot on 17 to effectively end the match.

As soon as Day got to the green and saw how close Scheffler was, his hat came off to congratulate the winner. Scheffler has now played just three WGC-Match Plays and made the semi-finals in each. On Sunday, it could be three straight finals for the two-time defending champ. His record overall is 15-2-2, including 10 straight wins, which is somewhere beyond spectacular.

One match behind him, McIlroy underwent a similar narrative, falling 2 down to Xander Schauffele on the front nine before engaging in a see-saw battle that saw him chip the margin to 1 down heading into the 13th. A McIlroy birdie there tied things up, and then it was pure nerves for 14 through 17, when Schauffele had the better opportunities. McIlroy nearly chipped in his second shot on the par-3 17th, but decided a bad putt is better than a bad chip and managed to save par and dodge the biggest bullet of all when Schauffele pulled his short birdie attempt.

“I felt like I definitely had the better of him,” Schauffele said. “I had looks where he didn’t, and he made putts when I was just kind of waiting around.”

McIlroy was on fire from five to eight feet, and it kept the match all square as they strode to the 18th tee. There, a handful of reporters and volunteers scurried to the woods’ edge, hoping to see from straight on a repeat of McIlroy’s wonderdrive from Thursday. Instead, he pulled his shot left into a stand of trees beside the fairway. The outcome was unclear, and the same could be said for Schauffele’s drive, which also went left, though not as far left as his opponent’s. As the players walked up the fairway, there was one ball behind a tree, having caught a branch or trunk, and the shot would force the player to make an awkward punch. McIlroy fully expected to see his TaylorMade — since his shot seemed worse — but instead, it was a Callaway.

“He thought it was his ball when he walked up and then kind of walked past it,” Schauffele said, “and I was, like, oh, my goodness, no way.”

Or, as McIlrloy put it, “You need a little bit of fortune in these things.”

Taking the lead for the first time at the last ?@McIlroyRory advances to the Final 4 @DellMatchPlay pic.twitter.com/66o2nsCIWh

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 25, 2023

McIlroy was farther up, still to the left of the fairway, but with a clean look. Schauffele attempted to pull off a miracle punch around the left side of the tree, but it couldn’t quite catch the slope to get a rightward bounce, and settled off the green. Meanwhile, McIlroy pitched to 12 feet, and wasn’t interested in testing fate on an extra hole:

His fist pump was modest, almost relieved, and Schauffele was there to hug him almost immediately.

“I think winning the Match Play is always a massive accomplishment because of what you have to go through,” McIlroy said. “It’s seven rounds, and especially this week, I feel like a lot of my matches have been really, really close, so to be able to pull them out when I’ve needed to has been very gratifying.”

McIlroy faces Young in the second morning semi-final, and the 25-year-old has been spectacular all week, winning all five matches. He never even visited the the last three holes before his tight quarter-final against Kitayama.

As for Scheffler, he gets his good friend Burns, who hasn’t been quite as stellar as the other three semi-finalists by the statistics, but has been putting the lights out and winning close matches, including a nail-biter against Patrick Cantlay in the morning round of 16.

Golf has a way of frustrating our deepest wishes for a classic mano-a-mano duel, but if there was ever a time when perhaps the great clash of the titans seemed inevitable, it’s this week at the final Match Play in Austin. The semi-final challenges will be massive for both Scheffler and McIlroy, but now they’re just one win away from setting up what would be a spectacular send-off for one of the most exciting non-majors on the calendar.

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With the most lopsided win of his WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play career — a no-doubt 7-and-6 drubbing of previously undefeated Si Woo Kim — 44-year-old Matt Kuchar won his group and, more historically, tied Tiger Woods for the most match wins in the history of the tournament. He needed two wins coming into the week to reach 36 total victories, and after getting there, on Saturday morning, against Jason Day, he’ll have a chance to set the record outright.

“That’s something I still find it hard to comprehend that I’m saying that I tied one of his records,” Kuchar said, wearing his trademark grin. “So I’m hugely proud, pleased. There’s 300 more records I’m sure, to go, but it’s a fun one to be able to say you’ve kind of got something you tied Tiger with.”

He wasn’t aware that he was so close until he was told ahead of the week, but Kuchar admitted that it crossed his mind on Thursday when he missed a five-footer for birdie to beat Chris Kirk, having to settle for a tie instead. Following that match, the transcript of his interview seems to indicate he was less than pleased with himself, and not in the best of moods:

I wasn't there for this interview yesterday after Kuchar missed a short putt on 18 and settled for a tie against Chris Kirk, but needless to say, he was much happier after beating Si Woo Kim today. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/Ynub48aDtj

— Shane Ryan (@ShaneRyanHere) March 24, 2023

Friday, things changed completely. He reflected for a bit on his career in this event — he didn’t remember that his first ever-win had come against none other than Anthony Kim — and aside from his championship win against Hunter Mahan in 2013, he pinpointed a consolation win against Bubba Watson in 2011 as his favourite match.

“Just entertaining, two completely different types of games,” Kuchar remembered. “Going through the rest — those finals, you get in the final it really stands out. And then I’ve got a final loss, which I’d like to forget.”

That was a reference to 2019, when he beat Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, and Lucas Bjerregaard on the weekend before falling to Kevin Kisner in the championship.

Overall, Kuchar’s record is now 36-11-5, and his wins and losses since his first go-round in 2010 run the gamut of names great and small from the last decades: Jeev Milkha Singh to Jordan Spieth to Hiroyuki Fujita to Bo Van Pelt. (It seems like one of the few big names he never played was Woods himself.) The latest of Kuchar’s four top-three finishes came in 2021, when he lost to Scottie Scheffler in the semi-final but beat Victor Perez in the consolation match.

If you’re looking for an asterisk here, perhaps you could point out that Kuchar, currently ranked 71st in the world, would likely not have made the field this year without the LIV Golf breakaway, or that the current format, with at least three guaranteed matches, benefits him since Woods played more of his Match Play events in the single-elimination format. Nevertheless, a win is a win, and Kuchar is feeling bullish on his game after this result and a top-10 finish at Riviera last month.

“I’m very, very pleased, very excited about it,” he said. “I’ve got kind of this week and next week with long shot hopes of getting back into the Masters. That’s certainly a big goal of mine.”

In order to break into the world’s top 50 and reach the Masters this year, Kuchar will, at minimum, have to beat Day on Saturday and score at least two other wins and finish at least in third place. Along with that goal, there’s always the lingering question of whether Kuchar will ever get another chance to break Tiger’s record; this is the final Match Play in Austin, and even if the event resurfaces down the line (which is not at all clear at this point), there’s no guarantee that Kuchar will qualify.

It’s fitting that he’ll play Day. Along with Woods and Geoff Ogilvy, Day is the only player who has won this tournament twice, and like Kuchar, his game seems to be resurfacing after a dormant period.

The last time these players met at the Match Play was the 2013 semifinal, which Kuchar won 4 and 3 en route to his only title. The very next year, Day came back to beat Victor Dubuisson in an epic final to capture the first of his two titles.

Asked if he would trade any text messages with Woods now that they share the record, Kuchar thought for a moment.

“No,” he said. “If tomorrow goes well, I might, though.”

The post Matt Kuchar has a chance to break Tiger Woods’ record at WGC Match Play appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Here is a rundown of how things stand (players in bold advance)

Group stages

Group 1
Scottie Scheffler (1): 3-0-0
Tom Kim (17): 1-2-0
Alex Noren (38): 0-2-1
Davis Riley (54): 1-1-1

Group 2
Billy Horschel (22): 2-0-1
Jon Rahm (2): 1-2-0
Keith Mitchell (39): 0-2-1
Rickie Fowler (49): 2-1-0

Group 3
Rory McIlroy (3): 3-0-0
Keegan Bradley (20): 1-1-1
Denny McCarthy (48): 0-2-1
Scott Stallings (52): 1-2-0

Group 4
Patrick Cantlay (4): 3-0-0
Brian Harman (25): 2-1-0
KH Lee (35): 0-3-0
Nick Taylor (55): 1-2-0

Group 5
Max Homa (5): 3-0-0
Hideki Matsuyama (18): 1-2-0
Kevin Kisner (42): 1-2-0
Justin Suh (63): 1-2-0

Group 6
Xander Schauffele (6): 3-0-0
Tom Hoge (23): 0-3-0
Aaron Wise (40): 1-2-0
Cam Davis (64): 2-1-0

Group 7
Andrew Putnam (56): 3-0-0
Will Zalatoris (7): 0-3-0
Ryan Fox (29): 2-1-0
Harris English (37): 1-2-0

Group 8
Matt Kuchar (59): 2-0-1
Viktor Hovland (8): 1-2-0
Chris Kirk (28): 0-2-1
Si Woo Kim (34): 2-1-0

Group 9
Jason Day (32): 3-0-0
Collin Morikawa (9): 1-1-1
Adam Svensson (44): 0-2-1
Victor Perez (51): 1-2-0

Group 10
Kurt Kitayama (19): 2-1-0*
Tony Finau (10): 2-1-0
Adrian Meronk (45): 2-1-0
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (60): 0-3-0

Group 11
JJ Spaun (61): 3-0-0
Matt Fitzpatrick (11): 1-2-0
Sahith Theegala (26): 1-2-0
Min Woo Lee (41): 1-2-0

Group 12
Mackenzie Hughes (50): 2-0-1*
Jordan Spieth (12): 1-2-0
Shane Lowry (21): 1-2-0
Taylor Montgomery (47): 2-0-1

Group 13
Sam Burns (13): 3-0-0
Seamus Power (30): 1-2-0
Adam Scott (33): 1-2-0
Adam Hadwin (53): 1-2-0

Group 14
Lucas Herbert (46): 3-0-0
Tyrrell Hatton (14): 0-3-0
Russell Henley (31): 2-1-0
Ben Griffin (62): 1-2-0

Group 15
Cameron Young (15): 3-0-0
Sepp Straka (27): 0-3-0
Corey Conners (36): 2-1-0
Davis Thompson (57): 1-2-0

Group 16
JT Poston (43): 3-0-0
Sungjae Im (16): 2-1-0
Tommy Fleetwood (24): 0-2-1
Maverick McNealy (58): 0-2-1

*- denotes playoff win

Saturday — Round of 16

8.35am Max Homa (5) v Mackenzie Hughes (50)
8.46am  Patrick Cantlay (4) v Sam Burns (13)
8.57am  Matt Kuchar (59) v Jason Day (32)
9.08am  Scottie Scheffler (1) v J.T. Poston (43)
9.19am  Xander Schauffele (6) v J.J. Spaun (61)
9.30am  Rory Mcllroy (3) v Lucas Herbert (46)
9.41am  Andrew Putnam (56) v Kurt Kitayama (19)
9.52am  Billy Horschel (22) v Cameron Young (15)

Round of 16 for @DellMatchPlay pic.twitter.com/a30qkw9iIN

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 24, 2023

Quarter-finals follow on Saturday afternoon

The post WGC Match Play: Standings after group stages and last-16 draw at Austin CC appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Scottie Scheffler won last year in Austin, defeating Kevin Kisner in the final, for what was his third title in a six-week span. The victory propelled him to World No. 1 for the first time and was a prelude to his Masters win two weeks later. The 64-player field is split into 16 four-man groups with Friday the last of the round-robin clashes. The winners from each pool advance to the weekend, with the last 16 and quarter-finals scheduled for Saturday and the semi-finals and final on Sunday.

The winner will receive 550 FedEx Cup points and a $3.5 million share of the $20 million purse.

Friday’s tee times
5pm (UAE) KH Lee v Nick Taylor
5.11pm Adam Svensson v Victor Perez
5.22pm Viktor Hovland v Chris Kirk
5.33pm Denny McCarthy v Scott Stallings
5.44pm Jordan Spieth v Shane Lowr
5.55pm Taylor Montgomery v Mackenzie Hughes
6.06pm Max Homa v Hideki Matsuyama
6.17pm Kevin Kisner v Justin Suh
6.28pm Sam Burns v Seamus Power
6.39pm Adam Scott v Adam Hadwin
6.50pm Patrick Cantlay v Brian Harman
7.01pm Collin Morikawa v Jason Day
7.12pm Si Woo Kim v Matt Kuchar
7.23pm Sungjae Im v Tommy Fleetwood
7.34pm JT Poston v Maverick McNealy
7.45pm Scottie Scheffler v Tom Kim
7.56pm Alex Noren v Davis Riley
8.07pm Matt Fitzpatrick v Sahith Theegala
8.18pm Min Woo Lee v JJ Spaun
8.29pm Xander Schauffele v Tom Hoge
8.40pm Aaron Wise v Cam Davis
8.51pm Tyrrell Hatton v Russell Henley
9.02pm Lucas Herbert v Ben Griffin
9.13pm Rory McIlroy v Keegan Bradley
9.24pm Tony Finau v Kurt Kitayama
9.35pm Adrian Meronk v Christiaan Bezuidenhout
9.46pm Will Zalatoris v Ryan Fox
9.57pm Harris English v Andrew Putnam
10.08pm Cameron Young v Sepp Straka
10.19pm Corey Conners v Davis Thompson
10.30pm Jon Rahm v Billy Horschel
10.41pm Keith Mitchell v Rickie Fowler

The post Friday tee times and pairings for the WGC Match Play appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

He is not, for instance, Justin Thomas. Still, that record disguises a few impressive feats. For one thing, he was one of just two Americans, along with Thomas, to post a winning record at the nightmarish 2018 Ryder Cup in France, a performance capped with a thorough 6-and-4 drubbing of Tommy Fleetwood, who had gone 4-0 to that point at Le Golf National.

For another, many of those losses have come against the likes of Ian Poulter (twice), Kevin Kisner and Hideki Matsuyama — titans of match play. If he’s not among the elites of the format, he at least looked like an underrated force ready to break out with a big result at this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club.

So far, he’s proving up to the task. Following a 2-and-1 win over Christiaan Bezuidenhout in his opening match, he reached new heights on Thursday with a relatively stress-free 4-and-3 win over Adrian Meronk. That moves him to 2-0 in the group, and a guaranteed spot in the knockout rounds if he wins or ties against Kurt Kitayama on Friday. (Even if he loses, he’ll have a spot in a playoff.)

After a modest start that saw him tied after an ugly double-bogey on the sixth, and only 1-up with a single birdie after eight holes, Finau caught fire, rolling in five straight birdies. The stretch started with a 41-footer on 9 and culminated with a layup on 13 and a pinpoint approach that set up a seven-foot birdie make. Meronk did his best to hang tough and actually matched Finau’s birdies on three of the five holes, but still found himself 3 down with five holes to play. When Finau stuck another approach to seven feet on 15 and converted the birdie, the match was over.

“I had a chance to close the match out yesterday and missed the putt, so I had another chance today and I was able to make it. Apparently I learned something,” Finau joked afterward.

Another reporter, unschooled on Finau’s history at this event, asked him how many times he’d made the Round of 16.

“Yeah, zero,” he said with a laugh. “That’s the goal. So we’ll move ahead to tomorrow, and we’ve got Kurt Kitayama who’s playing great golf and I’m going to have to play well to beat him, so I’m looking forward to that match.”

This actually marks the second time Finau has won his first two matches. In 2018, his first time making the field, he beat Kevin Na and Thomas Pieters before losing to Alex Noren, also undefeated, in a tight 1-up match with a berth in the knockout rounds on the line. Noren went on to take third place that year, while Finau went 1-2 in his next three tries in Austin. (With the Thursday victory he’s now 7-6-1 all-time here.)

After three PGA Tour victories in 2022, Finau is now up to No. 12 in the World Ranking, and has made seven straight cuts to start the 2023 calendar year. That stretch includes a pair of top-10s, but considering the consistency of his game and his newfound nose for winning, he’ll be feeling more ambitious with the Masters and the rest of the majors looming.

If his trajectory includes a major championship in the near future — of his 10 career top-10s, three have come at Augusta — success at the WGC-Match Play is a solid launchpad. Just ask Scottie Scheffler, who despite being seven years Finau’s junior, could function as a model for the ideal version of Finau’s 2022-23 stretch: A bunch of wins leading to a major breakthrough. Opportunity will knock against Kitayama on Friday, and though Finau is something of a late bloomer, he’s more ready than ever before to answer the call.

The post Tony Finau’s underrated career continues with a second win in Austin appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

All square against Sam Burns through 10 holes in their Thursday match at Austin CC, Scott appeared to gain the upper hand on the par-3 11th, as his tee shot was tracking toward the flag stick. The ball never left its mark, which proved to be unfortunate for the former Masters champ.

The tee shot ended up hitting the stick and ricocheting toward the pond, one of the unluckiest shots you’ll ever see.

The twirl ?
The precision ?
The result ?@AdamScott gets the most unlucky break of the day @DellMatchPlay. pic.twitter.com/02yreVBDXy

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 23, 2023

Just brutal.

The only saving grace was Scott’s ball stayed dry. The Aussie ended up making par to tie Burns on the hole. He did make three birdies over the next six holes, but Burns did too and ultimately defeated Scott, you guessed it, 1 up.

The post WGC Match Play: Adam Scott goes from an almost ace to near rinse in one of the unluckiest shots you’ll ever see appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.