The first World Golf Championship event of 2022 is the Dell Technologies Match Play event beginning Wednesday at Austin Country Club.
The 64-player field is divided into 16 groups for round-robin play over the first three days. The top two players from each group then advance to the Round of 16 for single elimination play Saturday and Sunday.
Field Level Media’s golf experts provide key tournament notes, odds and best bets.
WGC-DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY
Austin, Texas, March 23-27
Course: Austin Country Club, Austin (Par 71, 7,108 yards)
Purse: $12M (Winner: $2.1M)
Defending Champion: Billy Horschel
FedExCup Leader: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Wednesday-Friday, 2-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel); 2-6 p.m. (NBC) Sunday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-7 p.m. (NBC)
PGA Tour Live: Daily feeds on ESPN+
Social Media: @DellMatchPlay (Twitter)
NOTES
–Players are awarded 1 point for a win and a half point for a tie during group play. The player with the most points in each group advances to the Round of 16, with ties broken by a sudden-death playoff.
–Bryson DeChambeau will make his first start since the Farmers Insurance Open as he has been recovering from two injuries. Dechambeau said Tuesday that he had a torn labrum in his hip and a fracture hamate bone near his wrist.
–Kevin Kisner and Matt Kuchar lead with 16 matches won apiece since the event moved to the Austin Country Club in 2016. Kisner won the event in 2019, Kuchar is not in this week’s field.
–Sergio Garcia leads tournament history with 51 matches played.
–Six players ranked in the top 64 are not in the field: Cameron Smith, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Sam Burns, Harris English and Phil Mickelson. World #70 Maverick McNealy got into the field when Burns withdrew on Monday.
–This is one of three events on the PGA Tour that does not use a 72-hole stroke-play format along with the Zurich Classic (2-man team event) and Barracuda Championship (Modified Stableford).
BEST BETS
–Jon Rahm (+1400 at BetMGM) is 10-5-3 in the event. A star for Team Europe in the 2021 Ryder Cup, Rahm finished second in the Match Play in 2017.
–Justin Thomas (+1600) has nine top-20s and seven top-10s in his past 10 worldwide starts.
–Viktor Hovland (+1800) is coming off a T33 last week but still has three wins among seven top-10s in his past 10 starts.
–Collin Morikawa (+2000) has cooled off with a missed cut and a T68 in his past two starts. He also went 0-2-1 in his debut last year but does have a pair of runner-ups in six starts this season.
–Scottie Scheffler (+2000) already has two wins this year and fell to Horschel in last year’s final.
–Joaquin Niemann (+3300) has three top-10s and a T22 in his past five starts.
–Paul Casey (+3300) is a stalwart of the European Ryder Cup team and has finished second in this event twice. The 24th-ranked player is coming off a T3 at The Players. The world rankings of the past three winners? 32-48-35.