Markazi: Phil Mickelson is ready to make ‘The Match’ an annual event

Voting has now been completed for the Round of 16 and quarterfinals of our Mythical Match Play Championship. That means we’re down to the final four players from the original field of 64, leaving us with these two semifinal matches: • Rory McIlroy vs. Xander Schauffele • Jon Rahm vs. Sungjae Im Our fans helped to break three ties in the Round of 16 matches. With our 10 expert voters deadlocked at 5-5 for matches involving Schauffele vs. Hideki Matsuyama, Im vs. Collin Morikawa and Rahm vs. Marc Leishman, we enlisted the help of fans via the Twitter account of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. Schauffele, Im and Rahm earned the nods, and now they’ve each won another match to joine the world’s No. 1 player as the four survivors after clear-cut voting from the experts in the quarterfinals. Our Mythical event is the just-for-fun exercise we’re conducting this week in lieu of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, which was among the canceled events by the PGA TOUR in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The TOUR conducted a draw to produce a bracket, and now our 10 experts are voting for the winner of each match. We released the Round 1 results on Wednesday (click here), the Round 2 results on Thursday (click here) and the Round 3 results on Friday (click here) that determined the 16 survivors advancing to the single-elimination phase. We’ll crown the Mythical Match Play champion on Sunday. The voting rules are simple: Each expert was asked to pick a match winner, and the golfer with the majority of votes is the match winner. Our 10 expert voters include: GolfBet’s Jason Sobel from The Action Network; GolfTV’s Jamie Kennedy; Tom Alter and Jim McCabe from PGA TOUR Communications; Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton; PGATOUR.COM writers Ben Everill, Sean Martin, Mike McAllister and Cameron Morfit; and a combined vote from the TOUR’s ShotLink team. The results of all quarterfinals and Round of 16 matches are below (player seeds in parentheses). QUARTERFINALS Rory McIlroy (1) vs. Webb Simpson (9): 7 votes for McIlroy, 3 votes for Simpson. McILROY wins. Why I picked McIlroy: “I was surprised to see the injured Oosthuizen advance — I had him going 0-3-0 in his pool — so not only is McIlroy in better form than everyone else, he’s also more rested to face anyone later in the same day, much less Simpson, who grinded past Patrick Cantlay in the Round of 16.” – Rob Bolton Justin Thomas (4) vs. Xander Schauffele (12): 6 votes for Schauffele, 4 votes for Thomas. SCHAUFFELE wins. Why I picked Schauffele: “Statistically, these two are so close. In five of the six Strokes Gained categories, they are within 6 ranking positions of each other. Ultimately, I based my decision on Sunday Singles at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. Schauffele knocked off the biggest homegrown star in Adam Scott, while JT lost to young Aussie Cameron Smith.â€� – Mike McAllister Jon Rahm (2) vs. Patrick Reed (7): 6 votes for Rahm, 4 votes for Reed. RAHM wins. Why I picked Rahm: “While Reed is incredibly tough in match play, so, too, is this Spanish star who has previously been threatening to win it all at Austin CC. A 30-foot birdie on 18 seals a 1-up win.â€� – Ben Everill Adam Scott (6) vs. Sungjae Im (23): 6 votes for Im, 4 votes for Scott. IM wins. Why I picked Im: “I’ll take golfing machine Im over Scott, whose putting admittedly deserts him at times.â€� – Cameron Morfit ROUND OF 16 RESULTS Rory McIlroy (1) vs. Louis Oosthuizen (19): 9 votes for McIlroy, 1 vote for Oosthuizen. MCILROY wins. Why I picked McIlroy: “Oosthuizen is terrific at match play, but he can’t match the No. 1 player in the world. Rory rolls into the quarterfinals.â€� – Tom Alter Patrick Cantlay (8) vs. Webb Simpson (9): 7 votes for Simpson, 3 votes for Cantlay. SIMPSON wins. Why I picked Simpson: “Simpson simply looks like he knows every putt is going in.â€� – Jim McCabe Justin Thomas (4) vs. Ian Poulter (58): 8 votes for Thomas, 2 votes for Poulter. THOMAS wins. Why I picked Thomas: “Even though Poulter is the guy with the long-term reputation for stepping it up in match play events, Thomas is a sneaky 10-3-2 over the last three years of Ryder/Presidents Cup competitions, proving his skills translate well to this format.â€� – Jason Sobel Xander Schauffele (12) vs. Hideki Matsuyama (22): 5 votes for Schauffele, 5 votes for Matsuyama. Fan voting: 61% for Schauffele, 39% for Matsuyama. SCHAUFFELE wins. Why I picked Schauffele: “Xander is a pit-bull who waits for the slightest scrap and attacks. The first missed putt from Hideki would provide Schauffele a lead he would never relinquish.â€� – Ben Everill Jon Rahm (2) vs. Marc Leishman (15): 5 votes for Rahm, 5 votes for Leishman. Fan voting: 75% for Rahm, 25% for Leishman. RAHM wins. Why I picked Rahm: “Leishman is a tough match play guy with two trips to the round of 16 in the last three years, but 2017 runner-up Rahm is so comfy in Austin, he looks destined to win this tournament someday.â€� – Cameron Morfit Patrick Reed (7) vs. Tommy Fleetwood (10): 6 votes for Reed, 4 votes for Fleetwood. REED wins. Why we picked Reed: “Both players are really similar in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green ranking T-38 (Reed) and 34th (Fleetwood). However, Reed has a huge edge on and around the greens, ranking 38th in SG: Around-the-Green & third in SG: Putting to Fleetwood’s 176th SG: Around-the-Green & 96th in SG: Putting. Reed has Fleetwood by over a stroke on and around the greens per round this season on TOUR.â€� – ShotLink team Sungjae Im (23) vs. Collin Morikawa (44): 5 votes for Im, 5 votes for Morikawa. Fan voting: 56% for Im, 44% for Morikawa. IM wins. Why I picked Im: “Quite the battle among two of the PGA TOUR’s biggest and brightest young stars. This one comes down to putting – Im ranks 36th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season while Morikawa ranks 174th.â€� – Mike McAllister Adam Scott (6) vs. Tiger Woods (11): 9 votes for Scott, 1 vote for Woods. SCOTT wins. Why I picked Scott: “Having not played a lot in recent weeks, a fourth straight match for Tiger could catch up with him. Scott’s putting has improved drastically in the last 18 months and that helps him knock off the Masters champ.â€� – Jamie Kennedy

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Sam Burns, the defending champion at this week’s Valspar Championship, certainly wasn’t hurting for PGA TOUR wins in 2021. Not only did he win the Valspar Championship in May, but he also won the Sanderson Farms Championship in October. During the offseason, however, Burns and his coach Brad Pullin noticed that his mid-range approach play with his wedges could use improvement. Burns, like most golfers, was using a gap wedge that had a “traditional” wedge look and design. As pictured below on the left, his traditional Jaws MD5 50-degree wedge had a low-bounce design, thinner topline, blade-like cavity and a more rounded shape than his Callaway Apex TCB cavity-back irons (on the right). Interestingly, Burns was also using a 46-degree pitching wedge that had a traditional wedge shape, rather than using a pitching wedge (PW) that was part of his iron set. At the 2021 Valspar Championship, Burns won with four traditional Jaws MD5 wedges in the bag: 46, 50, 56 and 60 degrees. Now, at the 2022 Valspar Championship, Burns has just two Jaws MD5 wedges (56 and 60 degrees) in the bag. After thorough equipment testing during the offseason, Burns switched out his 46- and 50-degree Jaws MD5 wedges for two Apex TCB irons (PW and AW) that matched his iron set. “Sam (Burns) called me and said he was struggling from 125-135 yards,” said Dean Teykl, Manager of Tour Operations and Player Performance at Callaway. “So we looked at some options and I told him the gap wedge that goes with the iron set is going to be more forgiving than what he was playing. From a design aspect, it’s more of a cavity back, and it has a little more bounce and a wider sole.” Lofts and shafts being equal, as Burns found out, the Apex TCB irons (PW and AW) provided greater forgiveness on off-center hits, helping to reduce the negative impact of mishits on full shots. Due to the wider sole with more bounce, he also found the Apex TCB gap wedge to provide enhanced turf interaction since it doesn’t dig as easily into the turf. “I think it was just a better transition from the irons into the wedges, and also the A-wedge is just a little bit better through the turf,” Burns told GolfWRX. “I was looking for a little more consistency, and those clubs provide that very well … I think there’s more forgiveness in those for sure than with the other wedges.” Apparently, the switch has worked. In the 2020-21 season, Burns ranked 25th on the PGA TOUR from 100-125 yards (17 feet, 9 inches) and 115th from 125-150 yards (23 feet, 6 inches). Thus far in 2021-22, he ranks ninth (15 feet, 4 inches) from 100-125 yards and 47th (21 feet, 6 inches) from 125-150 yards. “He can (control the flight) with either option, but we noticed his distance control got better,” Tekyl explained. “It’s probably because it’s a little more forgiving. It’s blade versus cavity back, basically.” Generally speaking, due to the increased perimeter weighting of a cavity-back iron versus a traditional wedge, an iron shape will tend to offer more forgiveness on full shots. Although traditional wedge shapes may offer greater versatility on chips and pitches around the green, gap wedges and pitching wedges are mostly used for full shots. So why do most amateur and professional golfers opt for traditional wedges rather than high-lofted irons? “It’s basically habit,” Tekyl said. “I don’t know that there’s a thought process there.” For amateurs who are currently struggling with their wedge play, it could be time to try out a gap wedge that’s part of their iron set, rather than one that has a traditional wedge shape. It has worked so far for Burns, at least.

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