By Dave Shedloski
What Scottie Scheffler has done of late—and, let’s face it, he’s done a lot in a very short time—we have witnessed before, though not often and never so quickly. It happens when a player finally wins that first PGA Tour title and just keeps winning. Floodgates don’t just open, but they get busted off their hinges.

David Duval, circa 1997 comes to mind. After a frustrating breaking-in period, Duval’s maiden victory at the Michelob Championship that October propelled him to wins in three straight starts, and he eventually rose to World No. 1 after capturing the ’99 Players Championship.

Scheffler didn’t have to wait that long to become the world’s top-ranked player. Granted, the ranking formula was different a quarter-century ago, but let’s not be a buzzkill. With an emphatic and emotional victory at the WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay, Scheffler won for the third time in his last five starts, leapfrogged four men to lead the Official World Golf Ranking and extended his lead in the FedEx Cup standings.

His 4-and-3 dismantling of resourceful Kevin Kisner in the championship match at Austin Country Club was a microcosm of the quality of play he has exhibited since he broke through at the WM Phoenix Open nearly two months ago.

Not that his golf wasn’t sensational before then. There were plenty of close calls, top-five finishes, a 59 at the Northern Trust in 2020, runner-up in this event last year—all of which contributed to his selection by captain Steve Stricker to the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup team. At Whistling Straits, Scheffler went 2-0-1 and beat European stalwart and World No. 1 Jon Rahm in singles, 4 and 3, during America’s record romp. By the way, it was Rahm he supplanted as the top-ranked player, ending the Spaniard’s 36-week reign.

Gregory Shamus

Still, after his first 70 tour starts his trophy case was rather barren. Now he has three nice pieces of hardware. Floodgate city.

“It’s been kind of a crazy past few months,” said Scheffler, 25, a Dallas native enjoying a home game of sorts and, thus, enjoyed a couple of episodes of joyful sobbing in the aftermath as he hugged family, friends and most everyone within an arm’s length. “I really don’t know how to describe the emotion. I’ve thought about winning this tournament ever since last year. It left kind of a poor taste in my mouth getting so close and ultimately coming up short. So, it feels really good to finish the job this time around.”

Getting the job done doesn’t appear to be much of a chore anymore.

Scheffler, who improved to 10-2-2 in the event, didn’t trail in his last 57 holes and took down two tenacious opponents on Sunday, each who was unbeaten before locking horns with the former University of Texas Longhorn.

Earlier in the day, Scheffler stopped Dustin Johnson, the 2017 champion, 3 and 1 in the semifinals after nervously seeing a 5-up lead dwindle to 1 up when Johnson won four straight holes. To that point, counting last year’s Ryder Cup, Johnson had won 10 straight match-play outings. Johnson fell to Corey Conners in the consolation match, 3 and 1.

Kisner, meanwhile, had outlasted Conners, 2 up, in the other semifinal to enter his third WGC-Match Play final a perfect 6-0 for the week. But the Georgia native, who was first to avenge a runner-up finish with the match-play victory the following year, in 2019, trailed nearly from the outset against Scheffler and never won a hole. He gave Scheffler the second hole with a sloppy bogey and that turned into a 3-up lead for the Texan when he birdied the fourth and sixth.

“Scottie is probably playing the best golf on the planet right now,” Kisner said after his second runner-up finish in the event. “I knew I needed my best, and just couldn’t hole anything to get any momentum my way. Hats off to him. He’s playing great. Like I told him after, enjoy the hell out of how well you’re playing, man.”

Kevin C. Cox
A tearful Scheffler celerates with his wife, Meredith, after pulling out the WGC-Dell Match Play win and leaping to World No. 1.

The subtle message being, it never lasts, not even for the greatest players. But riding the wave sure feels good. And there is no telling when the tide will ebb. “My head is spinning,” Scheffler said when thinking about his new station in golf and why it took some time to get the hang of this winning thing. “I guess I’m making up for a little bit of lost time maybe the last few weeks.”

Scheffler, who in college played often at Austin C.C. and before that attended the event a few times, is somewhat of a throwback player, someone who competed in a variety of sports before settling on golf—though he claims that “I’m not that athletic.”

He also is not that assuming. But he is, in his own words, “fiercely competitive,” evidenced in a performance streak that has been lucrative—$6.2 million in the last 42 days, including $2.1 million on Sunday—and, frankly, a bit beyond his own expectations.

“It’s not something that I didn’t want to achieve or didn’t believe that I could do,” he said of rising to the top of the World Ranking. “It’s just I grew up at Royal Oaks. I grew up wearing long pants to go practice because I wanted to be a professional golfer. That’s what I dreamed of. I dreamed of being out here. … The rankings never really crossed my mind. It was always just about being out here and competing.”

He will be among the favourites at the Masters after becoming the 2021-22 season’s first three-time winner and the first to win three events leading into the year’s first major since Johnson and Justin Thomas won as many before the 2017 Masters.

Maybe the dream can last a little longer. No one has risen faster to World No. 1 after winning his first tournament. It took Tiger Woods 252 days. Scheffler did it in 42. In his last six starts in the majors, Scheffler has finished in the top 20 in each, including T-19 last year at Augusta National. Only Rahm has played better in relation to par in the majors the last two years.

So, yeah, while Scheffler has been on a roll of late, he had been operating a higher gear for some time. Now he has the ranking that reflects his level of performance. Bonus points for closing the deal in a virtual home game.

“Pretty cool to do that in front of my family. They’ve supported me so much along the way, and I really don’t know what to say about that,” he said. “I don’t feel like No. 1 in the world. I feel like the same guy I was four months ago, and I hope that doesn’t change.

“Yeah, I don’t feel any different.”

And, yet, we know he is.

The post ‘My head is spinning’: How Scottie Scheffler went from first PGA Tour win to World No. 1 in 42 days appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
You don’t see matches end after two holes often, but that’s how many holes it took Corey Conners to grab a win Wednesday at the WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay.

That’s because Conners’ opponent, Paul Casey, conceded the first match of round-robin play. Casey actually won his first hole against Conners, his par besting Conners’ bogey. However, Casey hit two balls into the hazard on the second hole and soon withdrew from the match, citing injury. Casey’s agent told Golf Digest’s Shane Ryan that Casey is experiencing back spasms; following the match Casey went to the locker room to receive treatment.

While he pulled out of the match Casey has not officially dropped from the tournament, meaning he still plans on attempting to play his scheduled Thursday and Friday matches.

Casey was in contention at the Players Championship two weeks ago, ultimately finishing third at the weather-wrecked event at TPC Sawgrass. He was a pre-tournament WD from last week’s Valspar Championship—a tournament that accounts for two of his three career PGA Tour wins—but that was chalked up to the toll of contending at the Players rather than an injury-related decision.

Casey has an exceptionally solid record at the WGC-Match Play, reaching the Sweet 16 seven times in his last 11 starts here and finishing runner-up twice. Casey is scheduled to face Alex Noren at 9:31 a.m. on Thursday, with Coreys taking on Louis Oosthuizen at 9:20 a.m.

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By Christopher Powers
Golf Channel’s Justin Leonard called it “scratchy.” Twitter critics called it “ugly.” Matchplay appreciators likely channelled their inner-dad from “Rudy,” calling it “the greatest sight these eyes have ever seen.”

However you want to describe the Jordan Spieth vs. Keegan Bradley match on Wednesday at Austin Country Club, there’s no doubting that the slugfest/pillow fight/who-messes-up-less affair was everything that’s good—and bad—about the WGC-Dell Matchplay.

It started as most matches do at Austin CC’s gettable par-4 first, with one player making birdie to grab a 1-up lead. That player happened to be Bradley as the two played in the day’s first match.

Bradley’s birdie proved to be one of the few highlights from the match between the two major champions. On the front nine alone, five holes were won with pars. Other than the par-5 sixth, which Bradley won with an eagle to Spieth’s birdie, it was pretty pedestrian golf. After nine, Bradley led 1 up, thanks to a par that beat Spieth’s bogey 5 at the ninth.

The back nine featured much more of the same, Spieth the only one of the two to make a single birdie between holes 10 and 15. At the par-5 16th, Spieth took advantage of Bradley’s messy double bogey, making a birdie to take his first lead of the match. From there, they tied the 17th with pars and then Spieth’s par at the 18th won him the hole and closed out the match, 2 up.

The final tally: Four combined birdies for Spieth and Bradley, plus one eagle from the former, and six holes won with pars. Maverick McNealy, who badly beat Joaquin Niemann, 8 and 6, made four birdies by himself … on the front nine. He needed only one more at the 12th to finish off the match.

Of course, the Bradley-Spieth sloppiness is what makes match play such a great format, not only for the best in the world but for us weekend hackers. You’re never out of a hole, never out of the match, some other cliché about match play, etc. You can have your C+ game and still be standing on the 18th tee with a chance to halve, just like Bradley was on Wednesday. The counterargument is that it doesn’t necessarily identify the best golfer, but for one week out of a long season, we can all live with that.

It’s also the perfect format to potentially get Spieth out of his recent rut. Instead of being upset with his not-so-great play, he’s 1-0-0 and in the driver’s seat to make a run at the Round of 16, which he’s only advanced to twice in six attempts in this format.

“It wasn’t a pretty match,” said Spieth, who is now 12-4-3 while competing in group play at the WGC. “But when somebody is in position like [Bradley was] every hole, it makes it a little bit challenging mentally for who’s playing with him, especially when I did not drive it particularly well, as good as I have been.

“Didn’t lead until 16 and once I won 16, then I felt in control there briefly,” he added.

On Thursday, Spieth gets Justin Rose, who started the event with a 1-down loss to Adam Scott, another match that, let’s just say, wasn’t pretty. Should Spieth win that, he’ll be in either a win-and-you’re-in scenario or a scenario in which halving his Friday’s match could get him to the weekend, depending on how Scott and Bradley’s match goes on Day 2. The only thing we should expect is much more match-play vagaries to come out of this group.

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By Shane Ryan
AUSTIN — On the par-5 sixth hole in his opening-round match against Richard Bland at the WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay, Bryson DeChambeau blasted a 372-yard drive down the right side of the fairway, hit the 199-yard approach to eight feet and two-putted for a simple birdie. Bland found himself in trouble off the tee, and never had a chance to recover. It was vintage DeChambeau—a snapshot of what makes him such a world-class talent.

Unfortunately, it was one of few moments of brilliance in an otherwise sloppy match as DeChambeau returned from a six-week injury absence after withdrawing from the Saudi International in early February. The match against Bland ended in a tie, but that was mostly because the 49-year-old Englishman competing in the event for the first time threw away every chance to take an advantage against his opponent. That started on the first hole when DeChambeau blasted his opening drive way right into a concession tent and still managed to halve the hole with bogey.

One of the lowlights for DeChambeau came on the third hole, when he hit a 21-foot birdie putt exactly 11 feet, and stared at the poor effort in a state of mystification. His par putt raced four feet past the hole, and he was lucky to make bogey, but in what became a familiar script, Bland couldn’t do better than bogey either. The 15th hole might have seen both players at their lowest, when they each missed five-foot par efforts in what could have been a critical hole for each of them. All told, they tied each of the last eight holes, playing a gettable stretch in the stroke-play equivalent of one over.

In the midst of it, DeChambeau was also the beneficiary of a strange rules scenario in which officials gave him relief near a sprinkler head, but only because Thomas Pieters had been in the same spot earlier and after being denied similar relief, forced a change from the PGA Tour.

“I had a rules official come up, and he clarified to me that Thomas didn’t get relief,” DeChambeau said. “He goes, ‘yeah, but we changed it because it just wasn’t right,’ and apparently they can do that in match play. I feel really bad for him, and lucky break for me.”

In comments made to the Golf Channel Tuesday, DeChambeau said he hurt his hand playing ping pong in Saudi Arabia, and the injuries that caused him to enter and then withdraw before the start of both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Players Championship earlier this month included a fractured hamate bone in his left hand and a torn labrum in his left hip. He said he didn’t touch a club until last Friday, and he said that he still lacks confidence in his wrist movements, particularly on drives. In terms of lingering pain, though, he said that the bigger problem was acutally fatigue—this was his first appearance on the PGA Tour since he missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in January—after the match with Bland.

“They’re fine,” he said of his hand and hip. “Obviously, because I haven’t walked 18 holes in six weeks, it’s a bit tiring. … But as of right now it’s holding up well, and I pray it holds up the whole way.”

Despite the injury, he said after his round that he’s considering participating in a long-drive competition after the Masters, and that no, he wasn’t worried about further damage to his body.

“When I get to Augusta where I’m close to 200 [mph] ball speed again,” he said, “there’s a possibility that the next week, if nothing gives out and it’s structurally stable, that I’ll do that. I want to do it. I love it. … I know this is where my home is, but at the end of the day I want to expand out and try and give people a little bit of a show, too.”

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By Joel Beall
Sam Burns withdrew from the WGC-Dell Technologies Matchplay Monday.

Burns, who captured the Valspar Championship Sunday by defeating Davis Riley in sudden death, cited a need to rest as the reason for the WD.

“After three long weeks of golf, I feel that taking this week to rest and prepare for the busy stretch ahead is best. I appreciate the support and look forward to seeing everyone soon.”

Burns is coming off a torrid stretch. He turned in a T-9 at the gruelling Arnold Palmer Invitational, played in the penultimate pairing of the weather-wrecked Players Championship (where a final-round 76 dropped him to T-26) and capped off his run by successfully defending his title at the Valspar.

Burns, now up to No. 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking, has three wins in the past calendar year and eight worldwide top 10s in his last 16 starts. He is second in the FedEx Cup and ranks 11th in strokes gained on the season.

Replacing Burns in the Match Play field is Maverick McNealy. Bernd Wiesberger is now the first alternate.

The post Sam Burns WDs from WGC-Dell Matchplay appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
So what if your U.S. college basketball bracket is busted. The real madness in March is happening this week on the PGA Tour. The 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play pairings were announced Monday morning and though the reveal lacks the gravitas of college basketball’s selection show, the drama that lies ahead does not disappoint. Austin Country Club has proven to be a more-than-suitable locale for fireworks since taking over hosting duties in 2016, and though the PGA Tour’s last two winners (Valspar champ Sam Burns and Players champ Cam Smith) are not participating, the field is not short on stars.

The event revamped its format in 2015, partially leaving single-elimination in favour of 16 “pods” of four players, with everyone playing a round robin against the other three competitors. The players come from four categories divided by rank; the top 16 players are considered the “A” group, the next 16 classified as “B” and so forth. The players are grouped randomly by a ping-pong lottery machine. From there, the 16 group winners advance to a single-elimination bracket, contested over 18-hole matches on Saturday (Sweet 16 and quarterfinals) and Sunday (semifinals and finals). Here are the round-robin pairings for the 2022 WGC-Dell Match Play:

Group 1: Jon Rahm (1), Patrick Reed (23), Cameron Young (40), Sebastian Munoz (58)

It’s not fair to say Rahm is struggling although he is in the smallest of slumps over the past month. Luckily no better place to get right than Match Play, where Rahm finished runner-up in 2017 and made the final eight last year. Coupled with his dominant showing at the Ryder Cup, he’ll once again be the man to beat. But to do so he’ll have to get through Rookie of the Year favorite Young, Munoz (33rd in FedEx Cup) and Reed. … For a player known for his match-play dexterity, Reed actually doesn’t have a particualrly great track record in this event, never advancing past the Sweet 16 in seven tries. He’s also in a big-time rut this season (189th in strokes gained). Still, he’s not an opponent you are dying to see in this format.

Group 2: Collin Morikawa (2), Jason Kokrak (22), Sergio Garcia (43), Robert MacIntyre (61)

These players are as different as they come in terms of playing profiles, which should make for a fascinating watch. … This is just his second Match Play appearance but Morikawa is coming off a 3–0–1 at the Ryder Cup, is sixth in birdie average and 13th in scoring and, oh yes, does have two major tiles to his name. … Kokrak is also making just his second appearance at this tournament and hasn’t played well since his fall win in Houston, with just one top-20 finish in six official starts. However, his distance and a sound short game (32nd in SG/putting) won’t make him an easy out. … Somewhat shockingly, in spite of his Ryder Cup conquests, Garcia has reached the Final Four just once in 18 Match Play appearances. He has, however, advanced to the weekend in each of his last three Match Play starts. … Big Shot Bob reached the Sweet 16 in his debut last year and is coming in with top-15 finishes in his last two starts.

David Cannon

Group 3: Viktor Hovland (3), Will Zalatoris (24), Cameron Tringale (45), Sepp Straka (63)

The, ahem, “vagaries” of match play usually lead to at least one dust-up per tournament. Don’t think you’re going to see it in this group; there’s a better chance Hovland, Zalatoris, Tringale and Straka open a lemonade stand on the 12th tee than any manhoods being affronted. … For all of his struggles around the green, this format will allow Hovland to shake off any potential hiccups with his chipping and, in that same wavelength, amplify his second-shot talents (third in SG/approach). Not sure the same could be said for Zalatoris and his putting woes, yet Bubba Watson’s win in 2018 proves you can be a so-so putter and still excel at this event. … Both Tringale and Straka are making their Match Play debuts, but Straka is coming in hot with a win at the Honda and a T-9 at the Players.

Group 4: Patrick Cantlay (4), Sungjae Im (21), Seamus Power (42), Keith Mitchell (62)

Listen, we know there are no bad players in this event, but some groups are deeper than others. And boy, good luck finding a breather in this one. … Not much of a track record for Cantlay at this event, but no matter. Going back to last year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, Cantlay has finished T-11 or better in seven of his last nine starts. Coupled with a 3-0-1 display at the Ryder Cup, the man will be a tough out. … Im has cooled off, ever so slightly, from his blazing start to the season (five T-11s or better—including a win—before February). He’s still 13th in strokes gained and 24th in scoring, and without any real weaknesses in his game, he’s made to wreak havoc in this event. … Power is not a household name but has been playing like one over the past nine months. The Irishman enters the event sixth in greens in regulation and 15th in scoring, should anyone be looking for a betting flyer. … Mitchell’s game may not aesthetically “wow” yet he’s 18th in SG/tee-to-green and 20th in strokes gained.

Group 5: Scottie Scheffler (5), Matt Fitzpatrick (20), Tommy Fleetwood (41), Ian Poulter (59)

We have a British friend who swears there’s always one Match Play group filled with Europeans so that they cannibalize themselves, and while we don’t agree, we know he’s somewhere screaming “I told you!” at this pairing. … Hard to go against Scheffler, who reached the finals in last year’s Match Play and has won two of his past four starts. If there’s one Achilles’ heel for Scheffler it’s, well, actually, he doesn’t have one. Godspeed to his challengers. … Talk about an expanse between Fitzpatrick’s FedEx Cup standing and his actual performance. The Englishman is 48th in the tour’s season-long points list yet is first in strokes gained and fourth in scoring. Fitzpatrick is especially hot as of late with four top-10s in his last five starts. … Fleetwood seems close to putting it together with three consecutive top-25 finishes. But if he wants to reach the weekend Tommy Lad is going to need a lot of red and that hasn’t been his forte (117th birdie average, 59th in eagles). … Poulter’s recent Ryder Cup performances illustrate he’s not the match-play juggernaut he once was. Conversely, he’s a former Match Play winner, has advanced to weekend play in two of his last three appearances and might be the most terrifying “D” player in the tournament.

Group 6: Justin Thomas (6), Kevin Kisner (29), Marc Leishman (37), Luke List (53)

Thomas reached the Final Four in 2018 but hasn’t advanced to the weekend in four other starts. That said he’s second in scoring, third in birdie average, fourth in strokes gained and has finished T-8 or better in eight of his past 12 outings. Another solid showing this week could make him the Masters favorite next month. … Kisner is a former winner and runner-up in the event and comes in with form thanks to a fourth-place finish at the Players; Leishman has reached the weekend in three of seven Match Play starts. Yet the wildcard is List. He won at Torrey Pines in January and leads the tour in SG/tee-to-green, yet he’s been shaky as of late and he’s one of the worst putters on tour (205th SG/putting). Still, a very formidable challenge in the “D” slot that is more than capable of doing damage.

Sam Greenwood

Group 7: Xander Schauffele (7), Tony Finau (18), Lucas Herbert (39), Takumi Kanaya (56)

It seems like Xander is having a quiet year. Then you dig into the stats and realize he’s 10th in birdie average, 17th in SG/tee-to-green and his only bad performance was coming out on the business end of the brutal Players draw. He’s yet to advance to Sweet 16 play, but the Olympic gold medal winner will be just fine. … Speaking of which, Finau is 0-for-3 in advancing to the Sweet 16 and enters the week a surprising 159th in the FedEx Cup. Finau is too good, too polished, too talented for both of those standings; don’t be surprised if he corrects them this week. … It’s been feast or famine for Herbert this campaign; he has missed the cut in five of nine starts and has just two top-25s but one of those top-25s was a win and the other a T-7 at Bay Hill two weeks ago. His short game (fourth in SG/putting) will make him a formidable foe. … Kanaya makes his bones in Japan, and we do mean “bones,” with a whopping 10 top-10s in his last 13 starts to finish 2021.

Group 8: Dustin Johnson (8), Max Homa (30), Matthew Wolff (38), Mackenzie Hughes (51)

This week marks the first time in seven years DJ is outside the world’s top 10. He hasn’t been bad in his limited starts this season, but it’s also been a far cry from the standard he has lived up to over the past decade. As a former Match Play winner perhaps this is the week Johnson gets right, but he also hasn’t advanced to the weekend in his last three Match Play appearances. … Wolff hasn’t finished better than T-61 in 2022 and after a strong fall Hughes hasn’t been much better, missing four of six cuts. … This is only Homa’s second Match Play start but he has been quietly one of the more consistent players on tour this season, capturing the Fortinet Championship in the fall and finishing T-17 or better in five of his last six outings. With the other three coming in relatively cold, this could be Homa’s group for the taking.

Group 9: Bryson DeChambeau (9), Talor Gooch (27), Lee Westwood (47), Richard Bland (54)

Results are secondary this week for the beefy man, as a litany of injuries have limited DeChambeau to two starts on tour this season. With the Masters two weeks away, this event is all about getting competitive reps and remaining healthy. … Gooch’s lack of experience is compensated by his play this season, ranking 18th in scoring and 20th in SG/tee-to-green. As long as his short game behaves (94th in SG/putting) Gooch could be a nice dark horse pick to reach the weekend. … Since Westwood’s rejuvenation last March with back-to-back runner-ups at Bay Hill and Sawgrass he has not turned in a top-20 finish on tour. However, he brings a ton of experience with this his 20th Match Play appearance, his best showing coming in 2012 in a fourth-place finish, … Give it up for Bland, making his first Match Play appearance at the age of 49. He grabbed his first career European Tour victory at May’s Betfred British Masters and, proving it was no aberration, has six top-five finishes since that breakthrough.

Group 10: Louis Oosthuizen (10), Paul Casey (19), Corey Conners (36), Alex Noren (50)

It may lack the starpower of other quartets but goodness is this group deep. Oosthuizen finished runner-up in 2016 and enters off his best tour season in his career. His irons and putting have been a little off in the early going yet nothing to be worried about yet. … Casey is a Match Play savant, reaching the Sweet 16 seven times in his last 11 starts here and finishing runner-up twice, performances that can be chalked up to his second-shot prowess (sixth in SG/approach). He’s also coming off a third-place finish at the Players. … Conners posted eight top-10s in the super-season and though his results may not convey it, he’s playing well again this year, ranking 14th in SG/tee-to-green and 21st in in strokes gained. … Noren doesn’t have a lot of buzz, yet his T-12 at the Valspar—coupled with a T-5 at the Honda Classic and T-6 at the WM Phoenix Open—show he can still hang with the best as he nears 40.

Jed Jacobsohn

Group 11: Jordan Spieth (11), Adam Scott (32), Justin Rose (46), Keegan Bradley (60)

Spieth has made the weekend three times in seven Match Play appearances, but save for a runner-up at Pebble Beach, the three-time major winner has been off in 2022, ranking 92nd in strokes gained and 153rd in scoring average. His playground awaits at Augusta, yet Spieth could use a couple good days in Austin. … For all of Scott’s accomplishments, Match Play has not been one of them. Only three times in 14 previous appearances has Scott reached Sweet 16 play. Same goes for Rose, just 2-for-12 in that department, as well as Bradley (0-for-6). That said, Bradley knocked down the cobwebs with a fine performance at TPC Sawgrass and could be in line for a mid-career revival.

Group 12: Billy Horschel (12), Thomas Pieters (26), Tom Hoge (33), Min Woo Lee (49)

Sneaky fun group. Hoge is enjoying a career campaign in his eighth season on tour (win, runner-up, 12th in SG/tee-to-green, fifth in FedEx Cup). Lee, 23, has already won twice on the European Tour and is a former U.S. Junior Amateur champ, and Pieters—after a stint in golf’s wilderness—is showing flashes of the golfer on full display at the 2016 Ryder Cup and 2017 Masters. Oh, and the reigning winner is in this group.

Group 13: Tyrrell Hatton (13), Daniel Berger (17), Si Woo Kim (48), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (52)

Hatton reached the weekend in both 2018 and 2019 and enters with a tour-best 1.168 SG/putting mark. He has the penchant for making big numbers (T-75 in bogey avoidance), but his ability to match with birdies (19th in birdie average) makes him a tough out. … Berger hasn’t played much in 2022, just five official events to his name. But when he’s played he’s been lights-out, ranking fifth in strokes gained with a T-20 or better in four starts. In four Match Play appearances Berger has not advanced to the Sweet 16. … Kim has been sort of “eh” this year, making the cut in 11 of 13 starts but ranking 94th in strokes gained. However, he does have the ability to post birdies, and lots of them (27th in birdie average), which could spell trouble for his opponents. … Bezuidenhout has already logged 11 starts on tour this season and does have five top-25 finishes. And while the South African does a decent job of avoiding the big numbers (26th in bogey avoidance), to have any shot of advancing out of the round robin Bezuidenhout needs to do a better job of racking up birdies, which has been a major problem for him this season (198th in birdie average).

Katharine Lotze

Group 14: Joaquin Niemann (14), Kevin Na (25), Russell Henley (34), Maverick McNealy (64)

It’s a pretty simple equation: When Niemann is just average on the greens—like at his win at Riviera or strong displays at Mayakoba and Torrey Pines—he’s going to be a fierce bear to tangle with. When the flat stick isn’t working—he comes at 137th in SG/putting—he can be tamed. … We haven’t seen much of Na this season with only six starts but he’s a frustrating out at this tournament, making the weekend in two of his last four starts. … Henley has been absurdly consistent this year, leading the tour in SG/approach, third in scoring and seventh in strokes gained. He hasn’t played well at this event but go with form over past results. … McNealy got the late call with Sam Burns dropping out but at 31st in strokes gained he’s more than capable of busting some brackets.

Group 15: Abraham Ancer (15), Webb Simpson (31), Brian Harman (44), Bubba Watson (57)

Bubba’s win is what will be cited this week, yet it was no fluke: The two-time Masters champ has made it to the Sweet 16 in three of his last four appearances. … Ancer has not advanced out of the round-robin format in two previous appearances and he comes into Austin cold, ranking 129th in strokes gained with a T-33 his best finish in seven starts in 2022. However it’s seems like only a matter of when, not if, he wakes up from his slumber. … We are contractually obligated to remind you that Harman won the 2003 U.S. Junior Amateur and to please refrain from drinking every time the broadcast refers to him as a bulldog/Bulldog. … Simpson has made two starts since returning from injury, and though his results may not say it (MC at Players, T-48 at Valspar) his steadiness is made for this event.

Group 16: Brooks Koepka (16), Shane Lowry (28), Harold Varner III (35), Erik van Rooyen (55)

Because of injury Koepka has only played in this event four times, although he’s made it to the weekend twice in those appearances. Koepka had a good Sunday finish at Valspar and said he’s healthy for the first time in years, which is not exactly what his opposition wants to hear. … Lowry has made it to the weekend at Match Play but that was back in 2013. However, he is 15th in SG/approach and 10th in strokes gained this season, making him a pesky foe. … A T-6 at the Players showed Varner can hang at the important events, and his birdie average (11th) and bogey avoidance (36th) circles him as an underdog with a lot of bark. … By most strokes-gained categories there’s not a lot to like about van Rooyen, except he is 23rd in SG/approach. If he gets those irons firing and forcing opponents into difficult spots he may still be alive come Saturday.

The post Matchplay Madness: Breaking down the 2022 WGC-Dell Match Play groups appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
AUSTIN — At the conclusion of his championship match Sunday against Scottie Scheffler at the WGC-Dell Matchplay—a 2&1 win that goes down as his biggest coup since claiming the FedEx Cup in 2014—Billy Horschel smiled, nodded and said all the right things for TV on the 17th green. When the camera stopped rolling, he let out a sigh.

“Could I have made it any ****ing harder on myself with those two wedges?” he asked.

He was referring to two misplayed approaches on the back nine par 5s at Austin Country Club, first on 12 and then on 16, which prevented him from closing the match sooner against an opponent that was struggling just to summon his B-game. It had been a brilliant week for both men, and Scheffler in particular boasted an impressive victim list, with knockout wins over Ian Poulter, Jon Rahm and Matt Kuchar—two of the three best players in the history of this tournament and Europe’s great young hope. Horschel was no slouch either, surviving a sudden-death playoff against Max Homa in the group stages, then beating Europe’s shining star from Paris, Tommy Fleetwood, in a gritty quarterfinal match.

By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, Horschel and Scheffler weren’t at their best, and though neither would admit it outright, it looked like a classic case of mental and physical fatigue as the sunset on a long week.

“I think it wasn’t pretty,” Horschel said afterwards. “I feel sorry for the fans watching the coverage because they didn’t see any great golf shots or very few of them at that. They saw a lot of sloppiness. They saw a lot of pars win holes and I think I made a birdie and I’m not sure if Scottie made a birdie.”

Scheffler, the 2018 University of Texas grad who the crowds were mostly pulling for did actually have one, and it came because Horschel bombed out of the second hole and conceded it.

Nevertheless, for fans of this unique event, the quality of the final is never the headline. To win the trophy, a player must handle playing seven matches in five days, and that requires three basic elements: Skill, luck and endurance. That latter includes surviving missed opportunities and the occasional bout of bad play, all while marching through the picturesque but very steep hills of Austin C.C. Sure, Horschel could have closed out Scheffler earlier, and adrenaline led him to overcook a pair of approaches after Scheffler found the water on 12 and the dreaded “native area” on 16, resulting in a pair of frustrating halved holes. But Horschel, 34 and an 11-year PGA Tour veteran, held on through those blunders, played intelligent tactical golf even when certain shots deserted him, and Scheffler helped him at the right moment with a critical missed four-foot birdie try on 14.

Endurance, followed by luck, and a deserved victory.

A victory which comes with more than a few implications. It’s difficult in any match-play competition not to think about the Ryder Cup, and though there are six months and plenty of drama between then and now, both players profited from their performance in Austin. That’s according to U.S. captain Steve Stricker, who was tuned in for the duration of the event.

“Good to see three Americans in the final four and looks like taking the top three spots,” he texted as the action wound down on Sunday. “Also very excited to see Scheffler take down two of their top players.”

That will come as some solace for the 24-year-old, who admitted to feeling angry in the aftermath of his loss. “I really, really hate losing,” Scheffler said, with a rueful laugh. “I’m pretty pissed off right now. I hate this feeling and I’ll do anything in my power to not have to feel this way again in match play.”

Michael Reaves
Scheffler was the favourite among fans in Austin, but his swing became shaky in the championship match.

Horschel’s own Ryder Cup history is fraught, including a bitter moment in 2014 when he won the final two events of the FedEx Cup playoffs, but captain’s picks had already been made for the matches at Gleneagles—a situation that led to the U.S. changing the timeframe for its picks to give the ability for a captain to grab the late hot hand. Horschel knows he has a lot of work left to do before making the 2021 team, but he can’t help but dream that he may have his best chance yet.

“It’s been the No. 1 priority for me,” he said, before correcting himself and lowering it to top five. “I love playing for America [he was a member of the victorious 2007 Walker Cup team, considered one of the best in the match’s history]. I love playing for the USA. I love when people are pulling against me because I love to just put that needle into them to show them that, hey, you try and do everything you can to affect me and it’s not happening.”

For now, Horschel is plenty happy to have won this tournament. He’s long considered himself a strong match-play golfer, but in four previous tries, he failed to advance out of group play. There were near-misses, including a blown 2-up-with-two-to-go lead against Rory McIlroy in 2015 in a de facto group title match, and his lack of success had gnawed at him. Now Horschel has got the ultimate success, and a bit of validation to boot.

If anything, breaking through this year was unexpected. Horschel considers himself a perfectionist, but uniquely, his preparation for this event was light. After a missed cut in Bay Hill and a mediocre T-58 showing at the Players, he decided his best way forward wasn’t hours spent on the range, but a family vacation in Melbourne, Fla., in which he didn’t touch a club for seven days. The former University of Florida All-American came in with lowered expectations, which benefited him until Thursday, the moment when he thought he had cracked the case.

“I showed up thinking, ‘Hey, I’ve got this figured out. I can, I’m swinging good, everything feels good,’ ” he said. “And I just had a bad mentality and I played really bad because of that and J.T. [Poston] played good and beat me. So I just had to sort of check myself again Thursday night, and came out with a much better attitude Friday morning.

Darren Carroll
Horschel hopes his match-play success this week might improve his chance of making the U.S. Ryder Cup team this fall.

From then on, Horschel was untouchable, starting with his win over Collin Morikawa—a bit of revenge for their final round pairing at the WGC-Workday Championship in Bradenton a month ago—and lasting through Sunday afternoon. It’s his sixth career PGA Tour win and his first individual win since the 2017 AT&T Byron Nelson. It was also his first WGC title, and he’s not afraid to admit that he wants more—major victories, a Players Championship, and even a future Ryder Cup captaincy.

Coming into 2021, he felt he was ready to make the most of his talent and have a career year, and if Austin serves as a springboard to greater things, he’ll remember these five days as more than a feat of endurance with a rickety ending. He’ll remember it as the start of his prime.

The post With matchplay win, Billy Horschel takes next step in having more than just a good little career appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
Nick Faldo said he’d never known the rule in his 40-plus years as a professional golfer. Then it happened on back-to-back holes.

An obscure match-play rule came up twice during the Sunday’s semifinals match between Matt Kuchar and Scottie Scheffler at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. The first instance happened on Austin Country Club’s par-5 12th, where water guards the left side of the putting surface. Scheffler played first from the fairway and pulled his approach left into the drink, meaning he’d have to drop where his ball entered the hazard before playing his fourth.

Kuchar played next from the left rough and managed to find the front-right portion of the putting surface. Shotlink had his ball at 87 feet, eight inches from the cup, leaving a lengthy eagle putt. Scheffler then took his drop and had 77 yards in for his fourth.

That’s where things got a little funky: Kuchar played first, despite his ball being a good 50 yards closer to the hole.

Huh? One of the first rules of match-play golf is the player further from the hole plays first. So what happened here?

The answer lies in Rule 6.4b(1), which details the order of play when a player has a choice to play the ball as it lies or take relief. Scheffler technically fell into this camp, despite his ball lying at the bottom of lake. Theoretically, he could play his ball—as opposed to his ball being out of bounds, where he would be forbidden from playing it—or take relief from the hazard, which of course was the obvious choice.

The rule states, “the player’s order of play is based on the spot where the original ball lies [which if not known must be estimated].” So, where Scheffler’s ball lied after his drop is irrelevant to the order of play. Only the position of the original ball. Both players determined that Scheffler’s ball, although being at the bottom of the lake, was actually closer to the hole than Kuchar’s ball on the very front of the putting surface.

Kuchar, knowing the advantage that comes with hitting your ball close and putting pressure on your opponent to match that, promptly cosied his ball up within three feet. Scheffler hit a clunker and conceded the hole shortly thereafter.

The situation fascinated/puzzled Golf Channel broadcasters, and required further explanation by the resident rules expert, Steve Rintoul of the PGA Tour.

And then it happened again the very next hole.

A similar situation played out, this time on the drivable par-4 13th. Kuchar played first and hit his ball well right of the green, on dry land. Then Scheffler hit his ball right on line with the flag, but it flew about two yards too short and found water again. But again, Scheffler’s original ball lied closer to the hole than Kuchar’s, so Kuchar played his second from 30 yards before Scheffler played his third from 159 yards.

Just when you think you know everything about this game.

The post An obscure rule stumped the announcers twice during the Matt Kuchar-Scottie Scheffler match appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Two years ago, as you may recall, Kuchar approached a rules official after Garcia missed a tap-in par putt that he assumed had been conceded. But Kuchar hadn’t actually verbalised the concession, which is necessary under rule 3-2(b), and the rules official deemed that Garcia had lost the hole.

A similar situation played out between Kevin Na and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson on the 11th green at Austin Country Club. Johnson, who was 1 up at the time, had an eight-footer for a birdie that would have won the hole. The putt lipped out on the high side, and Johnson quickly picked up the ball to head to the 12th tee.

Not so fast! Apparently, Na, who lost his first two matches and was thus already guaranteed not to advance past the group stage, did not actually say “it’s good” or something to convey the message. So he called Johnson back and explained why he needed to wait for Na to affirmatively concede the hole, rather than assume the putt is good without actual confirmation.

Kevin Na giving DJ a lesson on scooping a ball before it’s officially conceded:

Na: “I know it’s this, but you still have to wait until I say something.” pic.twitter.com/GVJhXMBMXI

— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) March 26, 2021

It was a tense exchange, with both caddies listening intently as Johnson insisted that the putt was so short, it never crossed his mind that it wouldn’t be conceded.

“I know it’s like this,” Na said, as picked up by greenside microphones, “but you still have to wait until I say something.”

Johnson tersely apologised and began walking to the next tee. Na then affirmed that they had halved the whole—or, in other words, that he would not enforce any sort of penalty on Johnson for the quick-rake. Which he could have, under rule 3-2(b), which clearly states that “a concession is only made when it is clearly communicated.”

It was a no harm, no foul situation in the end—but it’s not often you see two pros talking intensely, in close proximity to each other, about a rules situation. The vagaries of match play, as they say.

The post Kevin Na confronts Dustin Johnson following quick-rake gimme appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
AUSTIN, Texas—After a brilliant scrambling par on 18 that preserved a 1-up victory over Bryson DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood was walking past the putting green on his way to the media flash zone when Jordan Spieth, hitting out of a bunker, couldn’t resist taking a quick shot.

“That was fun to watch,” he said.

Fleetwood thanked him, but Spieth wasn’t finished.

“But you could have just made the putt on 17 and saved yourself the trouble.”

Fleetwood responded to Spieth’s sly grin with a laugh, and a few minutes earlier, when he stood in a wet gulley, among clumps of deergrass on straddling a creek as he contemplated his second shot on 18, he was no doubt having the same thought.

In fact, there were a few opportunities to end a match that DeChambeau seemed eager to give away on the front nine, when errant drive after errant drive and a few missed putts to boot handed the English Ryder Cup star a 4-up lead after seven. Not insurmountable, quite, but getting close. (Fleetwood’s only real error on the front came when his caddie snapped a pedestrian sign.) But when Fleetwood found the water on 11, the margin had been cut in half. They traded wins with birdies on 12 and 14, and on the 15th, Fleetwood had his first chance to really put the hammer down with a five-footer for par. He blew it past, watched his lead drop to 1-up, and it was anybody’s match with three to play.

DeChambeau returned the favor with an approach on 16, and it was all he could do to make par and halve the hole. Meanwhile, Fleetwood got into trouble of his own and needed his biggest putt of the day, from 14 feet, to maintain his advantage.

That brought them to the 17th, a par 3 nestled into a hidden plateau, with forest falling off to the left. DeChambeau’s tee shot landed in the right fringe and spun back to the green, but not enough for his liking.

Michael Reaves

“It didn’t ever spin back,” he said to himself, incredulous, as he walked to the green. “There’s no way. There’s actually no way.”

His 20-footer slid past, leaving Fleetwood with 14 feet for the win and the chance to avoid being burned by Spieth post-round. But this wasn’t the kind of match where anything came easy, and his miss sent them to 18.

A par save for the ages! ?@TommyFleetwood1 gets out of trouble to win the group. pic.twitter.com/94KGTnL7sG

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 26, 2021

A quick look at the scoreboard showed that Antoine Rozner was winning his match, which meant that if Fleetwood lost the 18th and tied, he’d be forced to wait two hours to face the Frenchman in a playoff. If he won, he advanced, and though it’s not clear if DeChambeau understood it at the time, he had been eliminated on 17 once his chance to win the match was gone.

Fleetwood made life difficult on himself immediately, pushing his drive to the left, down into the ditch, where he had to place his feet on opposite sides of the creek just for a chance to punch one uphill in the vague direction of the green. With DeChambeau in the rough just 34 yards from the hole after another massive drive, the situation looked untenable, and worse once Fleetwood sent his second into the rough beyond the green and DeChambeau punched up to eight feet.

But it’s a special quirk of match play that a tremendous, improbable up-and-down is just as good as a two-putt from in close, and that’s exactly what happened—Fleetwood’s half-flop from off the green settled four feet from the pin, DeChambeau missed another putt, and Fleetwood came back from the brink of disaster to win 1-up.

Glum, DeChambeau marched off the green, tossed a ball to some fans screaming “Deesh!” at him, and disappeared with the “B.A.D.” book jutting out of his back pocket. Moments later, after running the Spieth gauntlet, Fleetwood stood in the flash area, hair pushed back from his head, blue-gray eyes so light they’re practically transparent, and analyzed what announcers called “the vagaries of match play.”

“I think that’s the beauty of the tournament in a way,” he said. “I’m sure there’s plenty of guys that over three rounds would have a better score than me right now, but some of them will be going home and I’m advancing. That’s just how the event works out. You have to do enough on the day against your opponent and then move on, and so far so good for me.”

At the end of a match he rightly called “scrappy,” Fleetwood credited his clutch putting, especially on 15, and spoke a bit about trying to negate the length advantage Bryson holds over everyone.

“I think definitely if your iron play is dialed in, you have a chance to definitely slot one in there beforehand and then add a little bit of pressure,” he said. “And like I say, it’s just so important to be so self-focused off the tee and know that’s your game and build your score or beat your opponent in the way that you can.”

By crook, and especially by hook, Fleetwood gritted out a tough win, and he knows too well that at the WGC-Match Play, all that matters is the win. On to the weekend.

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