For that effort, however, the last player(s) standing will be substantially rewarded. The last edition of this event at Austin CC is among also one of the PGA Tour’s designated events for 2023, which means the overall prize money pay out is jumping from its previously impressive $12 million to $20 million. The last man standing earns $3.5 million, up from the $2.1 million Scottie Scheffler earned for his win a year ago. Everyone who advances to Sunday’s semi-finals makes at least $1.145 million.

Below is the prize money pay out for each golfer at this week’s Match Play. While things are listed as pay days for individual places, those who do not advance out of group play are actually paid based on how many points they earned in the first three days of round-robin golf. The breakdown depends on how many earn various point totals (2 points, 1.5, 1, 0.5, and 0).

Win: $3,500,000
2: $2,200,000
3: $1,420,000
4: $1,145,000
Quarter-finals: $770,000
Round of 16: $365,000
17: $275,000
18: $258,000
19: $246,000
20: $236,000
21: $226,000
22: $216,000
23: $208,000
24: $200,000
25: $192,000
26: $184,000
27: $178,000
28: $172,000
29: $166,000
30: $160,000
31: $155,000
32: $150,000
33: $145,000
34: $140,000
35: $136,000
36: $132,000
37: $128,000
38: $124,000
39: $120,000
40: $116,000
41: $112,000
42: $108,000
43: $104,000
44: $100,000
45: $96,000
46: $93,000
47: $90,000
48: $88,000
49: $86,000
50: $84,000
51: $82,000
52: $80,000
53: $78,000
54: $76,000
55: $74,000
56: $73,000
57: $72,000
58: $71,000
59: $70,000
60: $69,000
61: $68,000
62: $67,000
63: $66,000
64: $65,000

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

By Joel Beall
It’s too bad the PGA Tour’s “Every Shot Live” at the Players Championship wasn’t available at this week’s WGC-Dell Matchplay. Because we missed a dandy of a drive from Bryson DeChambeau Thursday afternoon.

However, whereas most DeChambeau drives are the things usually reserved for NASA launches and make one question everything we know about science and physics and existence in general, this was a drive most of us see every Saturday at the local muny.

Fans following the reigning U.S. Open champ’s match against Si Woo Kim through shot tracker noticed DeChambeau appeared to shank his drive at the par-4 10th, with the tour’s play-by-play tracker noting the ball went 46 yards right of the tee box. Unfortunately, there was no official video of the shot, so fans were left wondering if this was a simple leader board mistake (which happens from time to time) or if the big man had another tee-box blunder, a la his topped shot at TPC Sawgrass two weeks back.

Turns out it was the latter, with Bryson telling the assembled media at Austin Country Club that what happened at the 10th was an attempted hero shot gone bad.

“I heel-pulled it lower than I wanted, came off low off the face, came out low—I could have easily cleared the trees up and over like I wanted to, but I hit it on the wrong part of the face and consequently hit the tree limb,” DeChambeau explained. “Hey, look, I was trying to drive the green, whether it was the practice green or the 10th green. I got it close.”

Translation: Bryson rocketed his ball off the heel of his club, the ball then hit a tree left of the fairway and ricocheted all the way right, near the practice putting green beside the clubhouse. And while there was no official video, there was this clip on social media.

Saw this on IG. The blokes account is private so can’t share the link , not best angle , all I’ve seen today. Sure there is better pic.twitter.com/vH6OQIufyH

— GolfBetBill (@cabbiebilly) March 25, 2021

DeChambeau lost the hole to Kim but won three of the final four holes to knock him off, 2 and 1, and keep his weekend hopes alive with a must-see Friday bout against Tommy Fleetwood. Let’s just hope the cameras are rolling for the entire ride.

The post Bryson DeChambeau’s attempt to drive a green epically backfired appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
If you’ve earned your way into the WGC-Dell Match Play field, you can quite literally beat any golfer on the planet, especially in a format as impossible to predict as match play. This week, there really is no such thing as an “upset.”

But reminding people of that fact makes you “that guy” at parties, the know-it-all guy who calls them hors d’oeuvres instead of appetizers. We know Antoine Rozner beating Bryson DeChambeau, 2 up, on Wednesday isn’t all that surprising given the level they’ve both reached in the game. Rozner has won twice in his last six European Tour starts, DeChambeau twice in his last nine on the PGA Tour. They’re both world-class golfers playing world-class golf at the moment. Rozner may be an unknown to the casual golf fan, but that does not mean he had no chance of beating Bryson on Wednesday. Appalachian State over Michigan, this was not.

All of that said, it’s still a little bit surprising! DeChambeau is currently trying to break the sport, while Rozner, who hails from France, was a spectator at the 2018 Ryder Cup in his home country (DeChambeau was playing in it). Rozner was ranked 203rd in the world in November, while DeChambeau was two months removed from picking apart iconic Winged Foot to win the U.S. Open. Yes, Rozner earned his way into a World Golf Championship, making him one of the best players in the world, but the David-takes-down-Goliath angle is a fun one to mess around with during this event each year. It’s what makes the first three days so compelling. Another thing to note—some folks in the desert would classify it as an upset, too, albeit a mini one.

Rozner’s (gulp) slaying of one of the game’s giants was not the only one on Wednesday, either. Down went Rory McIlroy, 6 and 5, to Ian Poulter. Down went Tony Finau, also 6 and 5, to Dylan Frittelli. Justin Thomas, two weeks removed from an impressive Players Championship victory, lost 3 and 2 to Matt Kuchar, who has missed five of his last 11 cuts and his finished no better than 34th during that stretch. In any given round, all of these guys can beat each other and beat each other badly. They are all that good. But for these three days, it’s OK to use the word “upset” or “Cinderella story,” even if it’s neither of those things. We are still in the midst of March Madness after all.

Three other takeaways from Day 1 of the WGC-Dell Match Play:

Steve Dykes

Jon Rahm squeaks past Sebastian Munoz in best match of morning wave

Rory-Poulter was billed as the morning wave’s title fight, and perhaps the must-watch match of the entire first day. It turned out to be anything but.

Rahm-Munoz wound up filling that void rather admirably, with the 28-year-old Colombian giving World No. 3 everything he had. After falling 3 down through 10 holes, Munoz clawed all the way back to all square with three to play, having won the 11th, 13th and 14th. Rahm was able to clip him on 16, then the two halved 17, giving the Spaniard a 1-up lead with the 18th to play. Munoz fought to the very end, banging home a 24-footer for birdie on the home hole and forcing Rahm to have to make a seven-footer to win the match. Rahm did, and you could tell in the way he embraced Munoz right after there was some serious respect for the grind. How can you not love match play?

Michael Reaves

The must-see Thursday match we didn’t see coming
If you put a gun to my head yesterday and said pick a winner in the Matt Fitzpatrick, Matthew Wolff, Corey Conners and Jordan Spieth group, I’d have gone with Fitzpatrick first based on recent form. My next case would then be made for Conners, also based on recent form. As much as I, too, am enjoying the Spieth revival, I would not have put my life in his hands, even in match play. As for Wolff? The least trustworthy of all given his recent dip in form.

And wouldn’t you know it, I’d be a dead man. Spieth’s match with Fitzpatrick was never in doubt, a 3-and-1 victory in which Fitzpatrick won a grand total of ONE hole. Wolff and Conners had a much closer clash, but Wolff ended up pulling away late, winning 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17 to close out the Canadian, 3 and 1. Now, we’ve got Spieth v. Wolff, the must-see Day 2 matchup no one saw coming, mostly nobody had any clue what Wolff would look like coming into the week. Lucky for us, he’s seemingly in good health and ready to get back in the conversation, as is Spieth. No one is complaining about that.

Ben Jared

It’s amazing what a simple format change can do

We’ve briefly mentioned both Kuchar and Poulter already, but they deserve a little extra shine for their performances on Day 1. In 27 combined starts since the Memorial in July, Kuchar and Poulter have missed 10 cuts and failed to register a single top-10, Kuchar’s best start a 18th at The Northern Trust and Poulter’s a 12th at the CJ Cup. They’ve both struggled mightily with their approach play and neither has been all that great on or around the greens, where they’ve both made a nice living over the years.

But on Wednesday, in match play, all that stuff gets tossed aside. Every hole is a new opportunity, a chance to throw a haymaker. A “sh-t or bust” attitude goes a long way in match play, as Poulter explained after his beatdown of McIlroy. Kuchar must have a little “sh-t or bust” in him too, though he wouldn’t dare to use such a word. These two have both been playing pretty poorly of late and one guy took down Rory with ease and the other took down the Players champion, 3 and 2. Match play just hits different for some, including “defending” champ Kevin Kisner, who opened with a 2-and-1 victory over Louis Oosthuizen. He and Kuchar meet Friday in a match that could be for a berth in the knockout round.

The post Upsets (yes, upsets!), Rahm squeaks past Munoz and the must-see match we didn’t see coming appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
On Monday, Ryan Lavner at GolfChannel.com reported that Jordan Spieth suffered a bone chip in his left hand in early 2018, likely sustained while weightlifting, and that the injury plays a big part in explaining his shocking fall down the World Ranking through the rest of that year, culminating in a low point where he refused to touch his clubs for weeks at the end of 2020. His decision to play through pain rather than undergoing arthroscopic injury is one he now regrets, as it forced him to use a weaker grip and resist important swing changes pushed by his coach Cameron McCormick.

Monday afternoon, appearing before the media ahead of this week’s WGC-Dell Match Play, Spieth elaborated on the difficult period.

“It’s just a matter of how bad it’s bugging you,” he explained of his decision to avoid surgery. “And it was for awhile there, kind of in the spring of 2018 through that fall, and then it got a little better … probably because I started swinging so poorly.”

He says he’s pain-free now, but regrets how he fought McCormick on strengthening his grip due to the pain, and the choice to soldier through in the hopes of fixing things in the offseason.

“I didn’t think there was a huge deal with it,” he said of discovering the problem. “If I taped it up, it didn’t feel so bad, so I just—you know, I went out each day trying to play the best golf I could play. … I wouldn’t blame anything on it other than that I probably fought changes that would have helped me turn things in the right direction a little bit sooner.”

The worst of the pain lingered at least to the end of 2018, when he remembers he and Justin Thomas each suffering their own hand woes at the Paris Ryder Cup. The fact that he’s bringing it up to the media today, in 2021, wasn’t deliberate, he said. He was only reflecting on his struggles, and it remains fresh in his mind because it was the first time he truly had to play through pain.

The technical explanation for how the injury affected his game isn’t too technical at all: Forced to use a weak grip to avoid pain, his club face opened, and he was forced to flip at impact. To play at his usual level, the timing had to be perfect, and he could manage it for stretches. Over four rounds, though, eventually something would short-circuit, and he found it impossible to remain consistently excellent with such a small margin for error.

At this point, he’s re-strengthened his grip, the pain is gone, and he credits the change with his improved play. There are still hiccups—he felt twinges as recently as the Players Championship—but his overall trajectory is vastly improved, and he’s once more on the verge of the world top 50.

“I’m 27, I’ve got a long road ahead, hopefully it’s one that’s full of a lot of consistent golf and continued progression like the last month or so,” he said. “I’ve got a few regrets, and it is what it is. I think that’s pretty normal for anyone’s career.”

The post Jordan Spieth opens up about the hand injury that derailed his game appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Even by the vagaries of match play, this Matt Kuchar-Sergio Garcia story is as idiosyncratic as golf can get.

For those that missed the Saturday fireworks at Austin Country Club, Garcia and Kuchar were locked in a WGC-Dell Match Play quarterfinal duel when things went awry at the par-3 seventh. Trailing Kuchar by one, Garcia missed a seven-footer for par to win the hole, his ball coming to rest an inch or two away from the cup. It was a distance that even Suzann Pettersen would concede as good.

However, Garcia went after his putt and gave it a quick-rake, and the ball lipped out. Due to the Spaniard’s swiftness, Kuchar did not have a chance to concede the putt. As such, Garcia lost the hole.

Matt Kuchar did not have a chance to concede Sergio Garcia's second putt.

Therefore, Garcia lost the hole.

Kuchar told the official he wanted to give Garcia the putt, but that cannot be done retroactively. pic.twitter.com/AJFF8N5J7h

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 30, 2019

It was a circumstance that clearly did not sit well with Garcia, as evidenced by this reaction at the following green:

Sergio Garcia out there doing Sergio things again ? #PGA pic.twitter.com/Bm6z8tSJvQ

— Jamie in Green Bay (@jamieingreenbay) March 30, 2019

Cameras then caught a tense back and forth between Kuchar and Garcia at the 10th hole. Tensions (relatively) returned to normal for the rest of the match, which Kuchar won, 2 up.

Following the round, Kuchar gave his side of the story to the media.

“Sergio, I saw, missed it. And as I looked up again, I saw he had missed the next one,” Kuchar said. “And I saw him off the green, I said, ‘Sergio, I didn’t say anything, I’m not sure how this works out.’ I didn’t want that to be an issue. So I asked [rules official] Robby Ware, I said, ‘Listen, I don’t know how to handle this, but I didn’t concede the putt, Sergio missed the putt.’ Sergio said, totally his mistake. He knew he made a mistake.”

Simple misunderstanding, right? But then Kuchar continued, and here’s where things went off the rails.

“I said, I didn’t want that to be how a hole was won or lost. And he said, Well, you can concede a hole. I’m not sure I’m ready to concede a hole. And just the rule played out with Robby stating how the rule works. It’s not a— certainly I don’t use any gamesmanship, it’s not a match-play tactic, it’s not anything. It was just one of those mistakes that Sergio made. And I said it’s kind of one of those tough deals in the game of golf.”

The remark that Sergio asked Kuchar concede the next hole clearly caught the media off guard, so much so that Kuchar was immediately asked, “Sergio potentially suggested you conceded the hole?” Kuchar was steadfast in his response.

“I apologized. I said I don’t like the way this was played out. He said You can concede a hole. I thought about it and said I don’t like that idea, either. … What didn’t I like about it? It’s hard to say other than I kind of just stuck to what the rules official said the rule was.”

Though it was an unfortunate situation, such a request is considered bizarre at this level of the sport. For his part, Garcia admitted as much in a separate talk with the media.

“It’s quite simple. I screwed it up, it’s as simple as that.,” Garcia said. “Obviously, I missed my putt, and I kind of tapped it with the back of my putter before he said anything. Yeah, it’s a loss of hole. I understand that. The only issue that it was, was that Kooch was like, I didn’t see it good, but I don’t want to take the hole. I don’t want to do this like this. So I was like OK, it’s fine, what do you want to do? Because there are many options that you can do if you don’t want to take the hole, even though I’ve already lost that hole. But obviously, he didn’t like any of the options that were there.

“It’s fine. At the end of the day, I’m the one that made the mistake.”

Kuchar also took ownership of how things played out. “Typically there’s an acknowledgement. I understand how the concession needs to be vocal, and we’re given these rulings in all our cup events,” Kuchar said. “And I try to do a really good job. I hate when guys kind of mumble something. I try to always be very clear, very vocal. This is one I was on the back of the green. It happened so fast. I knew I hadn’t conceded it. But it was never a tactic or anything. And as I told Sergio, he said, ‘That was my bad. I know I screwed that one up.’”

As for the icy conversation on the 10th, Kuchar merely said the two were trying to get “on the same page.”

Kuchar will play Lucas Bjerregaard in the semifinals on Sunday morning at 10:20 a.m. ET. It’s the farthest that Kuchar has advanced in the WGC-Dell Match Play since winning the championship in 2013.

The post Sergio Garcia suggested Matt Kuchar should concede a hole to “make things even” after rules controversy at WGC-Match Play appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
Sergio Garcia has done his best to change the narrative in the months following his bunker tantrum and his purposeful damaging of the greens at the Saudi International in February. He’s shaken hands, he’s kissed babies, he’s helped with marriage proposals. You name it, he’s tried it all. But for all those steps forward, it appears he’s taken one giant step back in his quarterfinal match against Matt Kuchar on Saturday at the WGC-Dell Match Play.

At the par-3 seventh hole, trailing Kuchar 1 down, Garcia had a seven-foot par putt left to win the hole after Kuchar was in for bogey. Garcia didn’t make a great stroke, and his putt missed on the left side, coming to rest an inch (maybe even less) from the cup. We’ve seen guys not give short putts on Saturday due to the windy conditions, understandable given the fact that when there is still meat left on the bone, the wind can play a huge factor. But Sergio’s second putt is literally less than an inch from the cup. In any match at any level of golf this putt is “good.” The problem is Garcia went up and quick-raked it, and it lipped out:

Matt Kuchar did not have a chance to concede Sergio Garcia's second putt.

Therefore, Garcia lost the hole.

Kuchar told the official he wanted to give Garcia the putt, but that cannot be done retroactively. pic.twitter.com/AJFF8N5J7h

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 30, 2019

As you can hear the rules official explain, Kuchar never had the chance to concede the putt, even though it was clearly good. Had Garcia just stood there and waited, Kuchar would have told him to pick it up and the hole would be halved. But because Garcia didn’t give him that chance and he missed the putt, by rule that stroke still counts, and Kuchar can’t retroactively give him the putt, so he won the hole. Doesn’t get much more brutal than that for Garcia.

The situation is clearly having a negative effect on Garcia, who missed another par putt at the eighth hole, this time for a halve, and then took a full swing at his ball with the putter. Fortunately, he missed it, and we hope he wasn’t actually trying to strike it:

Sergio Garcia out there doing Sergio things again ? #PGA pic.twitter.com/Bm6z8tSJvQ

— Jamie in Green Bay (@jamieingreenbay) March 30, 2019

Garcia is understandably hot, and NBC cameras even captured footage of he and Kuchar having a tense back and forth in the 10th fairway. At the ninth, Garcia hit one miles to the right, eventually losing the hole to go 3 down. Garcia did just win the 10th hole to get it back to 2 down, and afterwards had a discussion with Kuchar’s caddie John Wood as they walked off the green. According to Jim “Bones” Mackay, who is out following the group, the environment is a heated one, to say the least. Bones actually caught up with Garcia a few holes later, and Garcia took the blame:

“The bottom line in this entire situation is I made the big mistake.”

The post Sergio Garcia rakes away tap-in before Matt Kuchar can give it to him, loses hole in brutal fashion appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The Masters is a week away and many in golf are wondering the absurd, which is questioning the contending merits of Jordan Spieth. All the man’s done in the past four seasons is set the tournament’s scoring record, finish runner-up twice and enter the other Sunday in the penultimate group. Those results should earn perennial favorite status. Yet six months removed from the 24-year-old vying to become the youngest Grand Slam winner in history, that absurd is reality, attributed to Spieth’s performance, or lack thereof, with the putter.

Entering the Houston Open, Spieth ranks 172nd in strokes gained/putting. Struggles that have rendered his ball striking moot, and have correlated to quick outs at his last two events. Though he’s experienced short-game troubles in the past, this slump is a different vexation. And one that’s taking its toll: following his WGC-Dell Match Play loss to Patrick Reed, Spieth was distraught, conceding he was unsure if he could fix the issue in time for Augusta National.

The good news for Spieth? It may not matter.

Analytics and statisticians have long established that “Drive for show, putt for dough,” is a misnomer. Tournaments are routinely decided by a player’s performance off the tee and in approach, with the work on the greens ancillary, if not downright irrelevant, to the proceedings. The same has not been said about Augusta National, where putting—supposedly—remains paramount. The Georgia confines are suited to bombers, yes, but distance is for naught if a player is lost on the greens. A belief that explains why Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy, otherworldly talents not exactly known for their putting prowess, have yet to hit the Masters jackpot.

But when asked if his short game is up to snuff to win a green jacket this February, McIlroy offered a different perspective on the matter.

“At Augusta, you don’t need to putt great, you need to not waste any shots, no three-putts, hole everything inside five feet,” McIlroy said. “You don’t need to hole every 15-footer that you look at, you need to be efficient, just not to be wasteful.”

McIlroy may have a point. After all, Bubba Watson is routinely one of the worst putters on the PGA Tour, and he’s won the tournament twice. So we took a closer look: Do Masters winners double as good putters, or is there something else at play?

Reviewing the last 12 Masters, one thing became abundantly clear: Since the course was lengthened in 2006, stout putting has not been a requisite for success.

Here are the those 12 Masters winners, followed by their output and rank in strokes gained/putting for that season.

2017: Sergio Garcia— negative-.356 (168th)
2016: Danny Willett—.172 (61st*)
2015: Jordan Spieth—.571 (9th)
2014: Bubba Watson— negative-.050 (109th)
2013: Adam Scott— negative-.027 (108th)
2012: Bubba Watson— negative-.280 (160th)
2011: Charl Schwartzel—.052 SG (96th)
2010: Phil Mickelson— negative-.149 (133rd)
2009: Angel Cabrera—.181 (63rd)
2008: Trevor Immelman— negative-.675 (191st)
2007: Zach Johnson—.659 (5th)
2006: Phil Mickelson—.268 (40th)

Willett only logged nine tour events in 2016, thus failing to qualify for official ranking.

Forget formidable; seven of the last 10 winners have been unequivocally bad putters, with only two from this 12-year window—Spieth and Zach Johnson—considered strong in the years of their Masters victories. And though we’re not dismissing Johnson’s 2007 win, it is something of an outlier, with brutal winds leading to British Open-like conditions (Johnson’s one-over 289 is the highest winning score in Masters history).

So why the disconnection between axiom and actuality? As a few have attested, Augusta National’s greens are so severe that it curbs the facility of good putters. The putting surfaces’ subtly and extremes—while fast in parts, going uphill and against the grain can be surprisingly slow at Augusta—create a defensive mindset. Speaking on the subject in 2013, Johnson said putts aren’t necessarily made but lagged, while Mickelson has remarked he tries to “float” the ball towards the hole.

Which puts all the more onus on the approach game, as lagging is a heck of a lot easier from 20 feet from the hole than 30. Reviewing the same 12 winners, there appears to be more of a connection between strokes gained/tee-to-green performance and fruition at Augusta National:

2017: Sergio Garcia—1.25 (12th)
2016: Danny Willett—.827 (25th)
2015: Jordan Spieth—1.583 (4th)
2014: Bubba Watson— 1.402 (7th)
2013: Adam Scott—1.337 (5th)
2012: Bubba Watson— 1.809 (3rd)
2011: Charl Schwartzel—.898 (19th)
2010: Phil Mickelson—1.151 (5th)
2009: Angel Cabrera—.372 (63rd)
2008: Trevor Immelman—.670 (31st)
2007: Zach Johnson—.415 (60th)
2006: Phil Mickelson—1.688 (4th)

Music to the ears of Spieth, as he enters this week’s Houston Open ranked ninth in this category.

This is not to say a player can survive a bevy of three-jacks at Augusta National, and it’s hard to account the havoc such woes can wreak on the psyche or other parts of the game. But while Spieth’s flat stick is a concern, as recent history has illustrated, it won’t keep him from contending for a second green jacket.

The post Why Jordan Spieth’s putting struggles won’t matter at the Masters appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
At the tail end of Rory McIlroy’s post-match presser on Thursday—he defeated Jhonattan Vegas, 2 and 1, to keep his weekend hopes alive—he was asked if he had any interest in the ultra-hyped Jordan Spieth vs. Patrick Reed showdown. Rory’s eyes lit up, and the question hadn’t left the journalist’s mouth before he interrupted:

“I have a lot of interest in that,” he said, drawing laughs. “What time are they playing?”

When told they had an afternoon tee time about four hours after his early match teed off, McIlroy was ecstatic.

The post You know who else is psyched for the Reed-Spieth showdown? Rory McIlroy appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
AUSTIN, Texas — One of the first two things you notice about Tony Finau, in person, is the way he walks. It can only be described as a slouch, and it has a humanising effect on someone who is otherwise a physical specimen. The second thing you notice is the length of his arms. Golf is a sport that seems to select for long arms, and even a relatively smaller player like Jordan Spieth has arms that test the tensile strength of his pockets. Even by those standards, and even for a guy who’s 6-4, Finau’s arms have an otherworldly quality. It makes you wish there was a wingspan stat available somewhere on the PGA Tour’s website, because I have a feeling he’d top the list.

In contrast, Thomas Pieters seems perfectly proportioned, and where Finau has a gangly outward quality, Pieters seems to hold everything in reserve. There is something inherently intimidating about the Belgian, despite the fact that he has a very inward demeanor. In a state of calm, there is the suggestion of rage brewing, and in a state of rage, you feel the smallest frisson of fear, though the fury is directed only at himself. He’s ice and fire at the same time. It’s not surprising that the 26-year-old has had success in match play early in his career, particularly at the Hazeltine Ryder Cup, where he went 4-1 and stood as one of Team Europe’s lone bright spots. Nor was it surprising that he went 2-up on Finau after two holes, and maintained the lead through the early part of front nine, striding his way past the overgrown ravines, the massive homes, the oak trees, and Deer Creek.

By the time they reached the 12th hole, a downhill par-4 with the gorgeous backdrop of the 360 Bridge set against limestone cliffs, Finau had completely reversed the match, and held a 2-up advantage. It threatened to go to 3-up when Pieters hit his second shot into the water (earning ecstatic cheers from the crowd), but Finau committed a cardinal match play sin by cutting his next shot too close. He watched it find its way into the same hazard—more ecstasy from the crowd, which apparently only desired carnage. Finau lost the hole, and with it the all-important momentum. But he gathered it back with a birdie on 13, and another on 15.

Related: Reed and Spieth win Wednesday matches, on collision course for Friday showdown

That last bounce back triggered the dormant rage in Pieters, who slammed a ball angrily on the cart path after missing a critical putt on 16, and slammed his iron into the turf on the tee box as he paced toward the 17th green, the match all but over. Smoldering, seething, churning, boiling—all words that come to mind. He left quickly, a 2 & 1 loser in round one of the WGC-Dell Match Play, straining with tension, wearing the look of someone who is going to break something the minute he’s alone.

Finau, on the other hand, was easy as they come standing near the 18th tee. He didn’t consider Pieters’ match play record, he said, and he doesn’t really play the person anyway. You got the sense that he viewed the capricious format almost as an excuse to throw his hands up, let his fate be decided by the gods, and play aggressive, birdie-seeking golf. Moments later, two spots down from Cameron Smith, he could be seen hitting high, soaring irons on the range.

The post Tony Finau calmly bounces back and defeats a U.S. match-play nemesis, Thomas Pieters, 2&1 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A different PGA Tour higher-up is to blame for my present state because in the moment, all I wanted was water. We were on the second floor of the Kimpton Hotel Van Zandt here in Texas’ state capital—plush leather couches, a fireplace with extra logs on either side, chandeliers seemingly made from old trombones and carpet of a reddish-brown that is perhaps burnt umber or perhaps burgundy or perhaps cordovan—just outside the banquet hall that played host to the selection show. I asked the higher-up where a soul could find the most natural liquid substance on planet Earth, having seen several stations offering red wine, white wine, liquor and an assortment of cheap beer. Unlike every other golf-media environment I’d experienced, water, however, seemed to be scarce.

“There’s only booze here.”

One of the strengths (or weaknesses) of these sorts of men is that you can never tell if they’re telling the truth or lying, so inscrutable are there expressions. So, I decided I should quench my thirst with the best possible compromise, Michelob Ultra. But that didn’t quite do the job, and still lacking water, I moved on next to the red wine offering, Cabernet Sauvignon courtesy of William Hill, Central Coast rivalry. (I’m reading the label now from the bottle I stole from the event, opener included). This may be good wine, or it may be bad, I frankly have no idea. But I can say for certain that the PGA Tour tricked me into the state of tranquility from which I now write this recap.

Because of these tannins, I’m saying, all I have for you are disjointed thoughts, which I hope are acceptable.

1. The crowd for this event, about 500 strong, standing-room only in the Van Zandt auditorium, consisted mostly of people who I’m convinced had never visited Austin before in their lives. Let me say a bit about Austin—walking through the city on Monday afternoon was like visiting a friend who had just entertained 99 straight guests, and was now welcoming you as the 100th. In other words, it was worn out. The South by Southwest Festival had just ended, which is the biggest show the city puts on each year. What’s more—you may have missed this—there’s a terrorist at work in this city, and the chief of police just called him a “serial bomber.” Things are very strange in Austin now. I spoke to a policeman at the Van Zandt who told me he’s getting calls from friends in London about this, and that a big part of his day is now taken up with calls from people receiving “suspicious” packages. All very understandable. And all of it making the timing of this selection show particularly weird. Not to mention that the crowd itself, full of gingham shirts beneath jackets, looked like the full assortment of Austin citizens who wouldn’t fit in at South by Southwest, and were herded for this otherness and ushered to the Van Zandt hotel for one night only.

2. Brandel Chamblee and Tim Rosaforte were in their positions behind their desk on stage at least 45 minutes before the show began, and I’m still not entire able to figure out why. Eventually, they were joined by Todd Lewis in the interview chair (stage right), John Mutch behind the resplendent, glowing ping-pong balls (downstage center) and host Ryan Burr. I thought Burr had the best jacket of the bunch, a lovely gray number with a pattern that I’m going to cautiously call “Glen Urquhart plaid.” When I quizzed the two lovely Dell employees to my left about who wore the best jacket, one of them adamantly agreed that it was Burr. (The other, clearly a philistine, chose Rosaforte’s plain-blue number.)

3. The most impressive moment of the night came when Burr soundlessly began the show, speaking to the crowd in unintelligible, emphatic sentences as a four-piece band totally drowned him out from his right. We had been encouraged by a producer to applaud, and so we did, but still we couldn’t hear a word from Burr. What I realized, though, is that the television audience at home could pick up every word, and even if Burr couldn’t hear himself think, and even if we couldn’t hear a syllable, he had to continue as though he was being received loud and clear by millions. I can’t imagine pulling off that performative feat with zero feedback—it’s like a tightrope walk without a net, blindfolded—but Burr seemed to nail it. It was one of those small moments where a mere mortal could witness his competence and say, “Oh, yes … TV is hard, isn’t it?”

4. The biggest reaction of the night? Jordan Spieth vs. Patrick Reed, baby! I’m going to write so much more about this, and I’m going to stalk them like an obsessive when they play on Friday, the duo landing together in Group 4. Seriously, what a draw that was! The drama of that revelation singlehandedly justified the entire show.

Stan Badz/PGA Tour
The great match-play team of Reed and Spieth will become rivals trying to claw out Group 4.

5. You want to know the main difference between someone who knows how to carry himself on TV versus a civilian? It’s all in the arms. Michael Dell—CEO, and boss of nearly all 500 spectators in the room—took the stage to help announce the first two groups, and the entire time he was in front of the cameras, he held his arms at his side as though God had just bestowed the two appendages and Dell had no clue how to manage them. I saw the film crew—the brilliant techies who I barely noticed until a camera swooped over my head in the back row—shot him from about navel-upward, which was an act of generosity. Because below that, his arms hung limp and useless, while the TV pros around him seemed to know exactly how to handle their upper limbs. Arms are the great divider, my friend, between the TV haves and have-nots.

6. Pat Perez is a brilliant man to interview and should be on TV as much as possible. I managed to stagger my way into the media room after his appearance on the show was done, and in the 30 seconds of private interview I saw, he managed to explain the uselessness of “chirping” at truly great players—“they end up asking you how many majors you’ve won, how many Ryder Cup teams you’ve been on, and you realize you have nothing.” He then proceeded to explain why he has so much fun chirping at Dustin Johnson (that explanation was a single gesture—a hand flying over his own head, with a verbal “whoosh”).

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Perez shares a laugh with Sergio Garcia at the 2018 WGC-Mexico Championship.

7. I wrote “great big stiff” in my notebook before Roger Clemens even took the stage as one of the celebrity guests. I was right.

8. Overall, I must say, I enjoyed the show very much. Pat Perez was funny. Tommy Fleetwood, wearing an unbuttoned black palm tree Hawaiian shirt over a black T-shirt, was funny. Todd Lewis sounded a bit hoarse, but gave solid interviews. Rosaforte and Chamblee had solid analysis, aside from the inexplicable time when Chamblee said we were in the most exciting year since 1975, back when the great players “were naming every river and mountain.” (One day, if he will talk to me, I would like to ask him what that meant.)

9. I had an embarrassing fan boy moment with Luke Wilson, after he had presented, when I shook his hand and told him how much I appreciated his movies with Wes Anderson, and he blew me off in the most polite way possible.

10. Burr got a huge laugh when he called Ian Poulter “the match play ninja,” and so he tried it twice more, with diminishing returns. But his first attempt was so successful that I’ve decided to pick Poulter, against all odds, as my 2018 WGC-Match Play champ.

Now, time for some Cabarnet.

Matt Sullivan
Poulter is a match-play wonder every two years at the Ryder Cup. Why can’t that mean success in Austin?

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