Day: March 21, 2017

Power Rankings: WGC-Dell Technologies Match PlayPower Rankings: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

It’s time for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. So, let the bickering begin! The best part about the window in between Monday’s live draw on Golf Channel and the first match on Wednesday is that there are no wrong answers when it comes to defending the wares of any golfer in the 64-man field. Because match play, of course. Win with 73 or lose with 65. So it goes. Austin Country Club is back to host after its well-received debut in 2016. More on it and other nuggets beneath the full-field ranking. NOTE: The order of the top 16 below is a logical determination based on the top four. For example, because Bill Haas is slotted fourth (or lowest among the semifinalists), Jason Day is ranked fifth (or highest among the quarterfinalists) because they would meet in the quarterfinals. Similarly, No. 8 Hideki Matsuyama (lowest among the quarterfinalists) would meet No. 9 Thomas Pieters (highest of the eight that wouldn’t advance from the round of 16). Golfers numbered 17-64 represent my subjective ranking of those who fail to advance from pool play. De facto home game for the former Longhorn. Recent winner at Pebble Beach. Leads TOUR in GIR and ranks a respective 2nd, T2 and T1 in par-3, -4 and -5 scoring. Back to avenge semifinal loss to champion Jason Day in what was McIlroy’s title defense last year. Executing as well as he ever has right now. Likely only he can beat himself. The 2011 runner-up performed better in this event in Arizona, but he continues to hang up strong outings. Fourth on TOUR in fairways hit, 19th in strokes gained: putting. So steady all season. Ranks T14 in GIR, second in scrambling, third in bogey avoidance and sixth in adjusted scoring. Survived last year’s opening pool that included Adam Scott. Defending champ and two-time winner (2014). Recent health and lackluster form set him up to exit earlier than anticipated, but gutted out sore back in first round last year. First look at ACC should suit the renown ball-striker. Putting is measurably improved as evidenced by a litany of top 20s since October. Fourth on TOUR in putts per GIR. Highest-ranked on this page among the first-timers. Sick stretch since winning Dunhill Links in October. Leads PGA TOUR in strokes gained: putting. Finally returned to Earth after torrid pace to bridge the holidays. Weakness with his putter is documented, but the FedExCup points leader went 2-1-0 at ACC in 2016. Continues to adjust to PGA TOUR stops but logged top fives at Riviera and in Mexico. Fantastic putter and scorer. Went 1-1-1 in Match Play debut last year. Already thrice a winner in Texas and now poised to make noise in Austin where his fiancée, Angela, played golf in college. Garcia won in Dubai last month. Terrific form overall. Obviously in his element and opened 3-0-0 at ACC last year, but still needs to execute at a time when he can’t shed inconsistency. Blame it on usually automatic short game. Never a semifinalist in 12 prior starts, but this is just his second in last six years. Doesn’t hurt to be pooled with recently ailing Daniel Berger (shoulder) & Si Woo Kim (back). Only golfer in last year’s format to go 2-0-1 and not advance, so he’s undefeated at Austin Country Club. Improving Match Play record on a smaller ballpark wasn’t surprising. Magnificent since winning in Abu Dhabi in January. Second in Mexico and T10 at Bay Hill in last two starts. Quarterfinalist in only prior Match Play appearance (2015). Went 2-0-1 last year before getting dismissed by eventual champion Jason Day. Sneds’ up-and-down form has been mostly strong of late. Forever a threat with the putter. The two-time runner-up (2009, 2010) reached the quarterfinals as recently as 2015. Form has been decent but unspectacular of late. Ranks T29 in GIR and eighth in scrambling. POWER RANKINGS: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play RANK PLAYER COMMENT 17. Dustin Johnson 18. Rafa Cabrera Bello 19. Branden Grace 20. Gary Woodland 21. Jon Rahm 22. Louis Oosthuizen 23. Ryan Moore 24. Kevin Kisner 25. Ross Fisher 26. Emiliano Grillo 27. Matthew Fitzpatrick 28. Justin Thomas 29. Daniel Berger 30. Joost Luiten 31. Brendan Steele 32. Charl Schwartzel 33. Marc Leishman 34. Russell Knox 35. Andy Sullivan 36. Alex Noren 37. Zach Johnson 38. Jimmy Walker 39. Matt Kuchar 40. Pat Perez 41. J.B. Holmes 42. Danny Willett 43. Bernd Wiesberger 44. Jason Dufner 45. Jhonattan Vegas 46. Jim Furyk 47. Charles Howell III 48. Bubba Watson 49. Byeong Hun An 50. Kevin Chappell 51. Lee Westwood 52. Yuta Ikeda 53. Webb Simpson 54. William McGirt 55. Jeunghun Wang 56. Søren Kjeldsen 57. Scott Piercy 58. Shane Lowry 59. Brooks Koepka 60. Chris Wood 61. K.T. Kim 62. Hideto Tanihara 63. Thongchai Jaidee 64. Si Woo Kim After Jason Day was done posing for pictures with the Walter Hagen Cup a year ago, tournament officials modified the yardages on two-thirds of Austin Country Club on which the nines are reversed for competition. Seven holes on the front nine were impacted, resulting in a net gain of 67 yards. Most notably, the par-4 second hole is 24 yards longer and the par-3 fourth is up 20 yards. The inward side is surrendering 32 yards overall, but the par-4 14th is 44 yards shorter on its own. ACC now tips at 7,108 yards and still plays as a par 35-36=71 built for shot-shapers. TifEagle Bermudagrass greens have been overseeded with velvet bentgrass and Poa trivialis to achieve consistency. They will be prepped to measure a slick 12 feet on the Stimpmeter. The targets are on the small size. That gels nicely with the course’s moderate length, but with only one cut of rough at two inches, escaping trouble and salvaging halves should never be ruled out. There won’t be a shortage of thrilling swings in momentum as a result. Overall seeding segregated golfers into four groups of 16 using the latest Official World Golf Ranking. Each of the top 16 populated his own pool. From there, one golfer from each of the remaining three groups was randomly selected to complete each pool until the final pool was determined. Last year, eight from the top 16 survived pool play. Four from Nos. 17-32 played on, as did one from Nos. 33-48 and three from those opening 49-64. This is the third year of round-robin play in the first three rounds, but just the second with the possibility of halving a match. Wins are worth one point, halves reward one-half of a point and losses are zeroes. Highest points totals in each of the 16 pools advance. In 2016, only six golfers recorded 3-0-0 records. The defending champion was among them. Three others opened 2-1-0, five more went 2-0-1 and two managed to advance despite going just 1-0-2. There are only nine debutants in the field, six fewer than a year ago. This includes Farmers Insurance Open winner Jon Rahm and the red-hot Tyrrell Hatton. Five qualifiers elected not to play, including would-be first-timer and recent winner of the Valspar Championship, Adam Hadwin. He’s getting married this week. After a favorable opening day of competition, Mother Nature will mix in sustained winds pushing 15 mph on Thursday, and then a reasonable threat for rain and boomers on Friday. She’ll relax on the weekend, although this is Texas, so the wind really never lays down. Seasonable high temperatures in the low to mid-80s are expected throughout. ROB BOLTON’S WRITING SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Columnist Rob Bolton will be filing his usual staples leading up to this week’s event. Look for the following columns this week. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings (Puerto Rico Open) TUESDAY*: Power Rankings (Match Play), Comfort Zone (Puerto Rico Open), Fantasy Insider, One & Done (Match Play) WEDNESDAY: One & Done (Puerto Rico Open) THURSDAY: Ownership Percentages in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf and One & Done presented by SERVPRO (Puerto Rico Open) * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

Click here to read the full article…