WGC Dell Technologies Match Play 2022: Your form stats for this week's event in Texas

From the heart of America's second largest state comes this week's match play bonanza which returns to Austin Country Club for a sixth time.

This will be the PGA Tour's first trip to Texas this calendar year, and will feature the cream of world golf.

The top 64 players in the World Ranking were invited to participate in a tournament which starts on Wednesday, and is played over five days.

In total, the event features 112 individual matches, culminating in an 18-hole final on Sunday afternoon.

Tournament Format

Competitors are divided into 16 groups of four and, over the first three days (Wednesday-Thursday-Friday), will play one 18-hole match against each of the other members of their group.

Matches during this section of the tournament can be halved and, on Friday evening, the 16 group winners go forward to contest a weekend of knock-out ties.

If two or more players finish tied top of any group, they will take part in a sudden-death shoot-out to decide who qualifies for the Last 16.

These Last 16 games take place on Saturday morning, followed by the quarter-finals in the afternoon.

Semi-finals and final are staged on Sunday, along with a third-place play-off match.

This means that those who survive through to Sunday will play a total of seven matches over five days.

Course Characteristics

Austin Country Club sits close to the Colorado River, some seven miles north-west of Austin City Centre, and approximately 12 miles south of Round Rock, where Dell Technologies has its international headquarters.

Designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1984, Austin is a parkland course with plenty of danger and five par-four holes of less than 400 yards.

As a match play venue, there are numerous risk-reward opportunities to tempt the world's finest golfers. Water comes into play on seven holes, most of it on the back nine.

In 2015 architect, Rod Whitman was commissioned to carry out, what he describes, as "a restoration" of the course". He said: "We developed the holes not changed them, and made some slight modifications to the greens."

Four years later all of Austin's bunkers were renovated, which included filling them with Arkansas white sand.

Absent Stars

A total of five pros have turned down the chance to tee-up in Texas. These are recently-crowned Sawgrass champion Cameron Smith, along with Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English and Phil Mickelson.

World Ranking Points on PGA Tour

Biggest 12 Points' Scorers

188.69: Scottie Scheffler
131.42: Sam Burns
120.94: Viktor Hovland
105.72: Talor Gooch
103.54: Joaquin Niemann
103.48: Sung Jae Im
100.78: Tom Hoge
95.06: Collin Morikawa
87.08: Justin Thomas
83.71: Luke List
78.66: Jon Rahm
75.86: Patrick Cantlay
For PGA Tour (FedEx Cup) events during current 2021/22 season
Only those entered this week are included in table

Latest betting for this week's Dell Technologies Match Play Championship

Four To Watch

Dustin Johnson: Champion at Austin in 2017, the current world No 11 hasn't won on the PGA Tour for 16 months but showed glimpses of good form during the recent Players Championship where he tied-ninth after closing with a 63. Collected a maximum five points at last year's Ryder Cup.

Kevin Kisner: A solid performer both 'week-to-week' on the PGA Tour, as well as in the WGC Match Play tournament. Has lost just three of his last 17 matches in this event, and has twice reached the final, winning once.

Joaquin Niemann: The confident Chilean is making his second appearance at Austin and is a career-high No 18 in the world thanks to his victory at Riviera last month.

Scottie Scheffler: Last year's runner-up has collected more World Ranking points in official PGA Tour events (since start of current season) than any other golfer. Has won twice already this year (at Bay Hill and TPC Scottsdale) and enjoyed his Ryder Cup debut last September by taking two and a half points from three matches.

Course Form page:
RU - Runner-Up; SF - Semi-Finalist; QF - Quarter-Finalist; L16 (beaten in last 16). Same applies for L32 and L64.

G-2 (finished second in group). Same applies for G-3 & G-4.

Courses:
2016/21 - Austin; 2015 - Harding Park; 2011/14 - The Golf Club at Dove Mountain;

Latest betting for next month's Masters Tournament

Twitter: Golf Stats Alive

The 2020 tournament was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves