The PGA Tour heads to the “Lone Star State” for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play event as the best golfers in the world take a week off from stroke play and battle it out with head-to-head competition. For the sixth year since 2016, the tournament will be held at Austin Country Club on the outskirts of the Texas capital.
The field is officially set with 64 of the top 69 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) committed. The star-studded field includes 50 PGA Tour winners with a collective 227 wins to their credit. The final seeds for the 64-player field will be determined by their OWGR as of Monday, March 22. The bracket for the event will be revealed that same day at 11 a.m. CST.
Course Overview
Having moved to its current location in 1984, Austin CC is a shorter par-71 course that measures 7,108 yards. Located along the banks of the Colorado River, it spans over 180 acres of hill country vistas and canyon views just west of downtown Austin, Texas. Playing host to the World Golf Championships match-play event, Pete Dye designed a difficult test of golf featuring uneven lies, forced carries, and menacing pot bunkers that challenge the best golfers in the world. True to his reputation, this Dye track will force players to play positional golf by strategizing their way around the course and being sharp with every club in their bag.
While the course does have Bermuda grass in play throughout for much of the year, it is still dormant during this time in March because of the cooler temperatures. So the fairways are overseeded with ryegrass and fescue while the rough is an ugly dormant brown Bermuda and is very short at only two inches. The greens are Poa trivialis and are the same surface as was just seen at both the PLAYERS and Valspar Championships. While many of the greens have undulations and numerous tricky areas, they run around a 12 on the stimpmeter which is Tour-average speed.
The front-nine plays more like a traditional Texas-style course. Pete Dye used the rolling hills and naturally elevated terrain of the property to create more of a rugged landscape full of native obstacles that will challenge players both off the tee and on their approach shots. There are often huge undulations and uneven lies throughout the fairways and green complexes.
The back-nine is much lower in elevation with holes 12-16 playing closest to the Colorado River with the famous Pennybacker Bridge as a backdrop. Not only are there more water hazards on this side of the course, but we also see numerous Scottish-style pot bunkers as well as some of Dye’s notorious elongated fairway bunkers. The pot bunkers can be so troublesome that golfers are often forced to pitch out sideways in order to have a target towards the hole. In fact, Austin Country Club’s 110 bunkers are the third-most out of any Tour course. As players come down this closing stretch of holes, the trademark Texas winds can also play a big factor as this side of the course is more wide open and affected by gusty breezes.
Not only does the course have a scenic backdrop, but it sets up to be an excellent match-play course with three lengthy par 5s along with five par-4s under 400 yards. There are a couple of holes down the stretch that reward boldness for players who might be trailing in their match and need to take some risks. This includes the driveable 317-yard 13th hole over water and the 368-yard 18th hole which is downhill.
While the course is somewhat generous off the tee with wider fairways on many holes, it is filled with deep bunkers, a handful of water hazards, sidehill lies, and surrounding canyons to penalize those who are spraying their drives. Unless super accurate, bombing away off the tee here is simply not a wise choice.
Like always, but especially here for this event, some of the best ball-strikers in the world are also among the best match-play performers. While you can win some matches by scrambling or two-putting for pars, birdies are the name of the game for winning match play. And with flag sticks typically placed in tight positions and the greens being undulated, keeping the ball out of trouble off the tee, and then hitting approach shots with accuracy to the proper quadrant will be crucial.