Breaking down the bracket for WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Bryson DeChambeau will make the cut at the Masters, but just barely. And he'll move on to the final two rounds despite not feeling 100 percent. "Not good, to say the least," he said of his play. "I was feeling something a little weird last - two nights ago, and I came out yesterday and was fine for the most part. As I kept going through the round, I started getting a little dizzy. I don’t know what was going on, a little something weird. "So I got checked for COVID last night, and I was fine, nothing," he added. "But I had to do the right thing and make sure there was nothing more serious than that. I don’t know what it is or what happened, but these past couple days, I’ve felt really, really odd and just not a hundred percent. Some of that’s played into it. I just feel kind of dull and numb out there, just not fully aware of everything, and making some silly, silly mistakes for sure." After he had bogeyed his last two holes for a 2-over 74 to sit at even par, DeChambeau needed help from Jordan Spieth at the 18th hole and Rafa Cabrera Bello at the ninth. Had either made birdie it would have moved the cut to 1 under par, knocking out everyone at even par. Spieth lost his drive in the trees and had to fight just to make the cut himself, the 2015 Masters champion rolling in a 15-foot par putt to keep his tournament alive. "You know, sometimes it’s more nerve racking trying to make the cut than it is trying to win the tournament," Spieth said. Cabrera Bello missed the ninth green but got up and down for par, also making the cut. Augusta National announced on Monday that the Masters cut would no longer use the 10-shot rule and would be changed to only the low 50 and ties. DeChambeau was part of an 11-way tie for 50th, as was Collin Morikawa, the winner of the PGA Championship. The winners of the last two majors survived by the skin of their teeth, as did Tony Finau (69-75) and past champions Zach Johnson (73-71) and Charl Schwartzel (73-71) and Spieth (74-70). Notables to miss the cut included: Matthew Wolff – Runner-up to DeChambeau at the U.S. Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic, Wolff got off to a hot start in his first Masters but scores of 70-77 weren't good enough. Tyrrell Hatton - Winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard never clicked at Augusta National, shooting 73-74 to finish 3 over and miss by three. Francesco Molinari - Was in control of the Masters last year until double-bogeys on 12 and 15 sent him down to a T5 finish, two behind Tiger Woods. Shot 72-78 this time to miss cut by six. Jason Day - Trendy pre-tournament pick had four top-10 finishes at the Masters, including a T2 in 2011, but blew up with a 78 in the second round to bow out early at 4 over. DeChambeau fought a right miss in Round 2, and for the second straight round hit just 11 greens in regulation. He double-bogeyed the 13th hole in the first round, and triple-bogeyed the par-4 third hole in the second. The third and 13th holes are two of the shortest on the course. Where exactly his tee shot wound up at the third hole - he had to take a lost ball and return to the tee to hit three - is unknown. It's assumed to have plugged in the wet grass. "It just seems like there’s a lot of things going not in the right way," DeChambeau said. "I’ve certainly played worst golf than this and won golf tournaments. So, you know, it’s one of those things where it’s golf. You can’t control everything as much as you try. He had an eagle putt when he returned to the 13th hole at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to complete his second round, but missed it and settled for a birdie to get to even par. A birdie at 14, where his drive missed way right but kicked off a tree back into the fairway, got him into red numbers. More driving problems, though, left him in the right trees at the par-5 15th, where he had to settle for par. A birdie at the par-3 16th seemed to give him breathing room, but he closed with bogeys at 17 (again missed right with his drive) and 18 (airmailed green from 150 yards in fairway). As for his health, he said he started feeling dizzy Thursday night. "Yeah, every time I’d bend over and come back up, I’d like lose my stance a little bit," he said. "So I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve got to go and do some blood work and get checked out and figure out what’s going on for this off‑season."

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WarnerMedia’s Turner division has secured worldwide media distribution rights to “The Match,� a historic head-to-head, 18-hole duel between Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson. The highly anticipated showdown between two golfers – who have a combined 122 PGA TOUR wins and 19 majors – will be hosted by MGM Resorts International and held Thanksgiving weekend at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. The winner of this blockbuster pairing, featuring these two legends of the game, will walk away with $9 million. “The iconic Tiger Woods and five-time Major Champion Phil Mickelson are generational talents who have transcended the game of golf and their rivalry continues to be one of the most compelling in the history of sports,� said David Levy, President of Turner. “This one-of-a-kind, winner-take-all matchup provides a great opportunity to harness the assets within the AT&T and WarnerMedia portfolio.   For the first time since AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner (now WarnerMedia), Turner, DirecTV and HBO will come together to present a multi-faceted presentation of the live event and accompanying content across a vast array of platforms.� The Woods-Mickelson live event and accompanying content – collectively offering unprecedented access leading up to and during the competition – will be distributed across wide-ranging Turner, WarnerMedia and AT&T platforms including: · Live pay-per-view coverage of the event will be distributed through Turner’s B/R Live, the company’s new premium live sports streaming service, and AT&T’s DirecTV, as well as on-demand platforms. · HBO Sports and its groundbreaking 18-time Sports Emmy ® Award-winning 24/7 reality franchise will capture all the excitement leading up to the match. · Bleacher Report and its wildly-popular House of Highlights, which recently surpassed 10 million followers on Instagram, will offer comprehensive highlights and behind-the-scenes content. · Turner’s TNT will also televise programming with select content from the event in the weeks following the live competition. · Turner International will facilitate distribution of live PPV access to the event outside the U.S. As part of the live event, both Woods and Mickelson will selectively make side-challenges against one another during the match.  For instance, Woods or Mickelson could raise the stakes by challenging the other to a long-drive, closest-to-the-pin or similar competition during a hole as they play their match, with money being donated to the winning golfer’s charity of choice. Turner Sports will produce all live event coverage while also serving as the exclusive sales and sponsorship partner.  Turner Sports and its Turner Ignite Sports will work closely with marketing partners to elevate their brands within this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, tapping into award-winning live events, experiential and creative marketing solutions. B/R Live, Turner’s new premium live sports streaming service, is available at https://live.bleacherreport.com; by downloading the B/R Live app through iTunes or Google Play; and/or via Apple TV, the Roku platform and Amazon Fire TV. Pay-per-view pricing for the live event will be announced at a later date.  The media rights agreement with Turner was completed in partnership between CAA Sports, Excel Sports and Lagardere Sports.

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Retief Goosen & Tyrone Van Aswegen … No matter how many years it’s been since any of Goosen’s seven PGA TOUR victories, it’s like cutting a corner when a two-time U.S. Open champion lands on this page. However, he’s resorted to burning a career earnings exemption this season in advance of his 50th birthday next February, so consider granting a dispensation. He and his fellow South African tied for 14th place at last year’s Zurich with a field-low-tying 60 in alternate shot in the second round. Goosen was perfect on his own ball from 2013-2017 with a pair of T21s at TPC Louisiana and struts in on a confidence-building T20 at the Valero Texas Open where he recorded progressively lower rounds throughout the tournament. The 36-year-old TVA has been one of the busiest PGA TOUR members over the last two-and-a-half seasons, and he’s made his starts count in going 57-for-80 since 2015-16. En route to a T23 at Harbour Town two weeks ago, he ranked T9 in proximity to the hole on those tiny greens and led the field in scrambling. Seamus Power & David Hearn … The Irishman is no fool. He’s plucked a partner in Hearn who finished T22 (with fellow Canuck and currently sidelined Graham DeLaet) last year and went 7-for-7 with four top 25s in individual competition at TPC Louisiana prior to that. Hearn is weaving his way through 2017-18 on conditional status, but he’s connected for two top 20s, including a T16 on Sunday in San Antonio where he ranked T4 in proximity and T2 in par-5 scoring. Power has made only six of 14 cuts this season, only three of which went for a top 40 but all were top 20s. His T5 at Corales a month ago is a career-best. Hearn’s game off the tee sets the table, while Power’s short game gives them a chance. The expanse of TPC Louisiana helps mitigate their reverse weaknesses in alternate shot. J.J. Spaun & Sam Ryder … Unlike international team competition in which the captain can elect to modify his lineup for every session, teammates at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans are stuck with each other for both best-ball and alternate-shot formats. Partnerships usually fall into one of two categories – the quintessential blend of strength off the tee and finesse around and on greens, or the alignment of skill sets that caters to a seamless and arguably more valuable transition in alternate shot. These two present a blend of both. They’ll be vying for the field’s lead in greens in regulation and proximity to the hole, a potent combination in any shootout. Spaun is the better scorer, while Ryder is still coming into his own as a rookie. However, when he placed outright fifth at the Houston Open just four weeks ago, Ryder led the field in strokes gained: putting and ranked fourth in birdies-or-better percentage on the greens.

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