PGA TOUR Live Featured Groups - WGC-Dell Match Play

Welcome to the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play, y’all!

The annual tournament boasting 64 of the world’s best golfers has a new home at Austin Country Club in Texas. The tournament will be at ACC and sponsored by Dell for at least four years, so what is new to most in this week’s field will soon be as familiar to its association with Harvey Penick and his students, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite, all World Golf Hall of Famers.

The round-robin format introduced last year is back, but with an additional twist. If during any of the first three matches golfers are all square after 18 holes, each will be credited with one-half of one point. Wins still count as a full point and losses are still worth zero. Playoffs will only be used to determine any of the 16 to advance from round robin and for any of the matches thereafter. Of the 16 top seeds a year ago, only five advanced, but champion Rory McIlroy was one of them.

PGA TOUR Live will be covering 2 featured matches from 11 A.M - 4 P.M. ET each of the first 3 days, then switching to featured holes (driveable par 4 - 13th and a short par 3 - 17th) from 4 - 8 P.M.

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WEDNESDAY

2. Jason Day (Australia) vs. 64. Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland), 11:20 a.m. ET (10:20 a.m. local)

Day went wire-to-wire to claim the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard last week at Bay Hill. He won this event in 2014 in the last year of its single-elimination format but lost all three of his matches a year ago. McDowell has missed the cut in four of his last six starts but did manage to squeeze in a fifth-place finish at The Honda Classic. Like Day, he lost all three matches last year. These two have met before in the 2013 quarterfinals, with Day winning 1-up.

Career Match Play records: Day 15-8, McDowell 30-17

5. Rickie Fowler (USA) vs. 60. Jason Dufner (USA), 12 p.m. ET (11 a.m. local)

Fowler’s on fire, with six top-10s in his last seven worldwide starts, including a win in Abu Dhabi. He won all three of his group matches last year before losing to Louis Oosthuizen in a tight Sweet 16 match. Dufner, meanwhile, also has a recent win, having claimed the CareerBuilder Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation. Since then, he’s failed to crack the top 10 in six most recent starts.

Career Match Play records: Fowler 10-6-2, Dufner 5-5

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THURSDAY

4. Bubba Watson (USA) vs. 35. Emiliano Grillo (Argentina), 11:20 a.m. ET (10:20 a.m. local)

In his first Match Play start in 2011, Watson reached the semifinals but has yet to get that far in his last four starts. A year ago, he lost a tough match to Louis Oosthuizen that kept him out of the Sweet 16. But he comes in with great form, with a win and a second in his last two starts. Grillo’s back-to-back wins on the Web.com Tour and the PGA TOUR last year moved him inside the top 40, but he has just one top 10 in his 12 starts since then.

Career Match Play records: Watson, Grillo 0-0

19. Phil Mickelson (USA) vs. 55. Daniel Berger (USA), 11:50 p.m. ET (10:50 a.m. local)

Mickelson has top-5 finishes in three of his last six starts and is feeling very good about his game. But he’s never made much of an impact in this event; in 11 career starts, he’s advanced to the quarterfinals just once. This is his first Match Play start since 2011. Since his second at last year’s BMW Championship – which moved him inside the top 50 in the world - Berger has made 11 starts without a top-10 finish.

Career Match Play records: Mickelson 24-21-3, Berger 0-0

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FRIDAY

6. Adam Scott (Australia) vs. 32. Bill Haas (USA), 11:20 a.m. ET (10:20 a.m. local)

His recent back-to-back wins make Scott one of the players to beat this week. He hasn’t made a lot of noise in this event since losing to Tiger Woods in the semifinals in 2003. In fact, Scott has lost his nine of his last 10 matches. Haas finished second at Valspar but a disappointing final round may have put some damper on his momentum. A year ago, he won two matches but failed to get out of group play.

Career Match Play records: Scott 18-21, Haas 4-7

3. Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) vs. 28. Kevin Na (USA), 11:50 p.m. ET (10:50 a.m. local)

The defending champ played well in his most recent WGC start, tying for third at the Cadillac Championship on a week in which he switched his putting grip. McIlroy has also proved he is a force in match play events, winning at field-high a rate of 72%. Na - who has won just 20% of his career match play rounds- tied for third at the CareerBuilder Challenge but hasn’t contended in his last five starts.

Career Match Play records: McIlroy 24-9-1, Na 1-4

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Match Play records for all 64 players in the field this week

Submitted March 23, 2016 at 08:09AM by flavorbar http://ift.tt/1U8mSve