WGC Dell Technologies Match Play: Scheffler set to defend final WGC event

• World number one looking to defend his title

• Strong field assembles in Texas

• Wednesday start for the final WGC Match Play

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Tournament History

The once revered World Golf Championships appear to have reached their end and, after a little over 20 years, this looks like being the final ever WGC event.

First played in 1999, the WGC events were seen as a means of gathering the best players in the world together more frequently. Prior to the WGC's, the world's best would typically only come together at the four majors.

The idea was to travel the globe with initially three and then four, top-class tournaments, but it was never easy to convince the American contingent to travel and the globetrotting aspect never really worked.

Aside from the WGC Champions in China, which hasn't been staged since 2019 because of the pandemic, most WGC events have been staged in the US.

And this looks like being the last WGC ever.

There wasn't a WGC Championship or WGC Invitational staged last year and an announcement was made at the start of the month that this week's WGC Dell Technologies Match Play, which was the only WGC event on the schedule again this year, won't be staged again.

With the introduction of the eight new, no-cut, limited field, Designated Events on the PGA Tour, the WGCs appear to have run their course. That is a shame as they held a certain amount of prestige and were a great way of bridging the run of the mill week to week events and the majors.

The WGC Dell Technologies Matchplay was first staged back in 1999, when 100/1 shot, Jeff Maggert, beat 150/1 chance, Andrew Magee, in the final.

After a couple of years at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsford, California, the event went Down Under in 2001 but few of the game's star names could be bothered to travel that far so the globetrotting notion was abandoned after just one edition and it's been held in the States ever since.

The event moved around the States before it switched to the Austin Country Club in Texas in 2016 and we return there this year for the sixth and final time. The 2020 renewal was lost to the pandemic.

Format

In addition to all the different venues, the tournament has also had several format changes and more than a few sponsors.

First, we had the failed attempt to travel the globe and in recent years there were constant murmurings that the majority of players didn't like Dove Mountain, but the biggest problem had been sponsorship.

The old straight knockout format saw many a star names on their way home after just one day and that's not ideal for the players or the sponsors, so something had to change.

I used to quite enjoy the first round, with 32 matches creating all sorts of shocks, but I did tend to lose interest as the event progressed and I can see why it changed in 2015.

We now have 16 groups of four so everyone gets to play at least three ties - provided there aren't any withdrawals.

The tournament is for the top-64 in the world rankings (not including LIV golfers) but with the tournament positioned so close to the US Masters, there are always one or two that give it a miss.

The world number ten, Justin Thomas, and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am winner, Justin Rose, are the only two eligible players to skip the event this time around but with so many LIV defectors still fairly high in the world rankings, Justin Suh, who was 77th in the rankings at the cut-off point on Friday is the last man in.

The top-16 ranked players are all seeded and they'll be kept apart in 16 groups. Over the first three days, starting on Wednesday, each player in each group plays each other to determine who progresses.

Group games can be drawn and they won't go beyond 18 holes. In the event of a tie, both players will be awarded ½ point.

The player with the best record in each of the 16 four-player groups advances to the Round of 16 for single-elimination match play (in the event of a two-way tie in a group.

(if the format is the same as last time, head-to-head match results will be used as the tiebreaker; a three-way tie will require a sudden-death stroke play hole by hole playoff).

The groups will be announced on Monday at 11 a.m. CT.

Players tend to need to win all three games to go through and it's a matter of luck whether you do or you don't progress if you don't win all three.

As many as nine players won two of three ties in 2021 but didn't progress whereas Robert McIntyre did get through to the knockout phase, despite winning only one of his three matches.

On Saturday morning the winners of each group meet in the round of 16, with the quarter-finals being staged on Saturday afternoon. The semi-finals and final, as well as the third-place playoff, or consolation match, will be played on Sunday.

Venue

Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas
Par 71, 7,043 yards

The Pete Dye designed Austin Country Club Course, created in 1980, isn't long at just a shade over 7,000 yards.

Situated by the shores of Lake Austin and carved through cedar and oak woodland, it's very easy on the eye and with four reachable par fives and a drivable par four, there are several risk-reward holes and we'll witness plenty of drama throughout the week.

Weather Forecast

TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all five days, starting at 14:15 on Wednesday

Last Seven Winners

2022 - Scottie Scheffler
2021 - Billy Horschel
2020 - Event Cancelled
2019 - Kevin Kisner
2018 - Bubba Watson
2017 - Dustin Johnson
2016 - Jason Day
2015 - Rory McIlroy

What Will it Take to Win the WGC Dell Technologies Matchplay?

Plenty of match play experience is always a plus so focus on the results of previous renewals of this event, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.

Being fit and injury-free could be key this week given whoever wins will have to play seven matches over five days with two matches on Saturday and two on Sunday.

Players that are fresh, that haven't been grinding it out every week in tough conditions on the Florida Swing, will probably fare better than those that have.

Adam Sarson (@Adam_Sarson on Twitter) usually produces a list of all the competitors match play records so check it his website nearer the off.

Is There an Angle In?

Don't be afraid to back someone that can get in their own way in stroke play events. Match play is a very different format. The players only have their opponent to worry about and there are numerous examples of players that struggle in-the-mix in stroke play absolutely thriving in this format.

Is There an Identikit Winner?

Pre-event 25.024/1 chance, Scottie Scheffler, beat the 2019 winner, Kevin Kisner, 4&2 in the final last year having been seeded fifth and that would have been a fairly typical result five years ago but Scottie's victory came after a three-year spell of less predictable results.

The 2021 winner, Billy Horschel, was seeded 32nd, the 2018 winner, Bubba Watson, was seeded 35th and in-between the two, the 2019 winner, Kevin Kisner, was the 48th seed. And he was the highest seed to win since Geoff Ogilvy won the first of his two titles way back in 2006.

That three-year spell may look fairly ordinarily but given Watson, in 2018, was the first winner in 12 years to be ranked any worse than 21st and that nine of the previous 11 had been seeded between first and tenth, it was actually quite an odd little run and Scheffler's victory was far more typical.

In the very early days, with a lot of the big names swerving the tournament, outsiders fared quite well and we saw four big priced winners in-row.

The inaugural winner, Maggert, Darren Clarke (2000), Steve Stricker (2001) and Kevin Sutherland (2002) were all matched at triple-figure odds but it's been all change since and Ogilvy in 2006 remains the only triple-figure priced winner since 2002. The Australian, who later that year won the US Open, was a 150/1 shot.

Scheffler, who went on to win the US Masters a few weeks later, had already won twice before he won here last year and although Bubba was relatively unfancied in 2018, he was the fourth winner in-a-row to have won earlier in the year and two of the four, Dustin Johnson and Jason Day, had won their previous event so strong recent form looks key.

Kisner hadn't won but he'd been in very solid form, having finished inside the top-30 in six events in-a-row, and Horschel had finished second in the WGC - Workday Championship a month before he won.

Previous experience of the pressure cooker atmosphere of the Ryder Cup has so far proven invaluable. In 2013, six of the last eight were all experienced Ryder Cuppers.

Robert Garrigus, who succumbed to eventual winner, Matt Kuchar, 3 & 2 in the quarterfinals, was the only one that could be described as not having significant team match play experience.

The other non Ryder-Cupper was the 2016 winner, Jason Day, but he had plenty of Presidents Cup experience anyway.

Tiger Woods, Geoff Ogilvy and Jason Day are all multiple title winners and I'd think twice about backing anyone that hasn't previously enjoyed a degree of success in the event.

Market Leaders

The top three in the world rankings - Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy - are some way ahead of the rest. Between them they've racked up nine more victories worldwide since Rory collared Scottie at the Tour Championship at the end of August last year.

With five wins from his last 11 starts, Rahm has been the most prolific and he reached the final here on debut back in 2017 before losing to the then world number one, Dustin Johnson.

McIlroy has won two of his last seven starts but Scheffler is the player riding the really hot wave at present, having romped to an impressive five-stroke victory in the Players Championship, exactly a month after successfully defending his Phoenix Open title.

Rahm withdrew from the Players with illness, a week after finishing only 39^th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and Rory missed the cut in the Players last time out so momentum is clearly with the world number one and he's the correct favourite.

Selections

Scheffler was beaten in the final on debut two years ago before winning last year so he clearly likes this Pete Dye track as much as he did Sawgrass two weeks ago. He looks a fair price at around 10/1 on the Betfair Exchange.

Tiger Woods, who achieved the feat eight times, is still the only man to successfully defend a WGC title, so that's against the favourite, and it would be poetic for the WGCs to end with that stat still intact. But playing in his home state, at a venue he likes, and at the top of his game again, I couldn't let Scheffler go unbacked.

Scheffler will also avoid Rahm and McIlroy up until the final (draw here) but he may just bump into fellow Texan, Jordan Spieth, in the semi-finals and he's my only other pre-event pick.

Spieth has been playing some brilliant golf of late and he could and arguably should have won both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Valspar Championship, so his game is in tip-top shape. I fancy this format will refresh him.

He got in his own way in both those recent starts and the simplicity of this format looks a plus.

Selections:

Scottie Scheffler @ 11.010/1

Jordan Spieth @ 32.031/1

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter