Brooks Koepka confirms he will play Ryder Cup

Tiger is coming off a big year. Now what? We track every movement of his 2018-19 season.

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The World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play is back. Wednesday's opening round is the first of three days of pool play. After Friday, the player with the best record in each of the 16 four-man pools will advance to knockout play. Two rounds apiece will be played Saturday and Sunday to crown a champion. Tee times were moved up two hours in anticipation of inclement weather, which could another layer to one of the year's most intriguing weeks. This is the only event where players go mano-a-mano, and Austin Country Club is a perfect site for this format thanks to its offering of risk-reward holes. Can reigning FedExCup champion Dustin Johnson win again in Austin? Can Justin Thomas go back-to-back after his PLAYERS victory? Will Collin Morikawa win a second straight World Golf Championship? Those are among the storylines we'll be tracking this week. There will be 32 matches in each of the next three days, and this file will be updated live at the conclusion of each match to keep you apprised of the action from the TOUR's only match-play event. Return here often to learn about the latest upsets, comebacks and nail-biting finishes. Until matches conclude, here's a sampling of some of the showdowns we're especially excited to see today: – Rory McIlroy vs. Ian Poulter: What a way to start the day, with a showdown of these two past champions. McIlroy reportedly has a new swing coach, while Poulter can never be counted out in match play. McIlroy, his former Ryder Cup teammate, knows that first-hand. – Patrick Reed vs. Bubba Watson: Watson is a past winner at Austin Country Club, while Reed has made it to the Round of 16 twice in Austin. Between Bubba's big, bending tee shots and Reed's stellar short game, this is a match for those who like to watch an old-school brand of golf. – Matt Fitzpatrick vs. Jordan Spieth: These guys are the exception in today's power game but they're both in good form. Fitzpatrick has finished no worse than 11th in his last four starts, while Spieth has three top-5s in his last five starts. – Justin Thomas vs. Matt Kuchar: Thomas arrives on the heels of his PLAYERS win but Kuchar can't be counted out in match play. He won the U.S. Amateur in 1997 and claimed this event in 2013. No one has made it to the Round of 16 in Austin more often than Kuchar. He's one of two players to advance out of pool play three times in the four tournaments at Austin CC (Louis Oosthuizen is the other). Kuchar was runner-up the last time this event was played, in 2019. – Lee Westwood vs. Sergio Garcia: This match features two resurgent 40-somethings who have been stalwarts on Europe's Ryder Cup teams. Westwood recently had consecutive runners-up at THE PLAYERS and Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, while Garcia's win at the Sanderson Farms Championship was his first in 3 ½ years and he recently finished ninth at THE PLAYERS.

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The PGA TOUR returns after a few weeks off and travels to the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the Sentry Tournament of Champions located on Maui in the Aloha State of Hawaii. The tournament will take place at the Plantation Course in Kapalua and will be a no-cut event. The course will play as the only Par 73 on the PGA TOUR with just three par 3s, measure just over 7,500 yards and feature grainy, Bermuda greens. The field will consist of only those who qualified by winning last season, which includes members of the winning U.S. Presidents Cup team like Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and defending champion Xander Schauffele, who shot a 62 in the final round last year to beat out Woodland by just a stroke. Those who won last season, but haven’t committed include players like Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and the Open Champion Shane Lowry. The Plantation course ranked as the sixth easiest course in scoring relative to par last season and routinely plays as one of the easiest every year. Finishing scores at Kapalua have totaled as high as 30 under back in 2016 with the lowest winning score at 22 under over the past four years. The main reason we see scores get this high? Extremely wide and easy to hit fairways as well as accessible par 5s, which are all birdie and eagle opportunities. The course’s main defense is the wind, but it shouldn’t be too much of an issue as we’ve seen guys still go low like Dustin Johnson, who won back in 2018 shooting 24 under in extremely windy conditions. The normal key stats apply here like Par 5 scoring, birdie or better average and Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green, but this week we should also be focusing a little more on Bermuda putting and Approaches from 100 to 125 yards. There are six par 4s measuring under 400 yards, which are just as important to score on as the par 5s. Justin Thomas ($11,200) It’ll be tough to fade Thomas this week with how well he’s currently playing and how well he’s played at the Plantation Course over his career. He’s ranks second to only Dustin Johnson in Strokes Gained: Total since 2015 and is one of only three players to qualify for the Sentry Tournament of Champions in four of the past five years. Thomas has the all-around game to win anywhere, gaining an average of 6.3 strokes Tee-to-Green over his past 10 tournaments. Ride the momentum. Patrick Cantlay ($9,800) Cantlay played amazing last season, making 11 straight cuts leading up to the TOUR Championship and gained an average of 2.6 strokes with his irons over his past 10 tournaments. Cantlay ranks 12th in Par 5 scoring average over his past six tournaments and if we look closer at his statistics over his past eight rounds with shot tracker he ranks fifth in approaches from 100 to 125 yards, ninth in birdie or better percentage and first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green. Collin Morikawa ($8,600) If you’re looking for value, Morikawa should be a solid play this week. It’ll be his first start in Kapalua, but what he lacks in experience, he more than makes up with his iron play, ranking second in the field dating back to the last 50 rounds coming into this tournament. It’ll be hard to trust his putting on Bermuda, but he’ll rely on his strong wedge play ranking fourth in Approaches from 100 to 125 yards over his past three tournaments. Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game. I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is reidtfowler) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.

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