The world’s best golfers head to Austin, Texas, this week for the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play event, a scheduling wrinkle to break up the monotony of standard tournament golf. This is currently slated to be the final version of this event, at least at this course and in this place on the calendar, but hopefully, the Tour will bring back match play in some format in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The field of 64 takes on a round-robin format Wednesday through Friday, with 16 four-man groups playing head-to-head with the goal of advancing from their group into the ‘win and advance’ format over the weekend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the 2021 event showed, with just one of 16 top seeds moving on, Match Play brings an added layer of variance when compared to a traditional four-day stroke play event. Last year, we saw eight of the 16 top seeds advance, the highest mark we’ve seen here over the past seven seasons. Per Justin Ray<\/a>, the advancement rate has been pretty flat across all four groups since this event moved to Austin Country Club:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A group (1-16) – 33.0% <\/p>\n\n\n\n B group (17-32) – 24.1% <\/p>\n\n\n\n C group (33-48) – 20.5% <\/p>\n\n\n\n D group – (49-64) – 22.3%<\/p>\n\n\n\n Austin Country Club, designed by noted golf architect Pete Dye, adds another layer of randomness. A par-71 layout measuring just 7,108 yards from the tips keeps every skill set in play, limiting distance advantages off the tee. The counter to that, as it pertains specifically to match play setup, is that distance helps since you’ll likely be forcing your opponent to hit their approach shot first. Knowing where or what your opponent did ahead of you is a unique advantage in match-play formats because that information can dictate how aggressive golfers need to be when they’re up. A triple-bogey is the same as a par in this format if your opponent birdied the hole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A unique format also brings in unique betting opportunities. Betting outright winners is still in play, but betting on group winners is more commonplace and likely a better way to approach this week. Finishing position bets get the week off. I’ll share a couple of outright bets that I like, along with a few of my favorite group bets heading into Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more course details, check out Ron’s<\/a> course preview<\/a>. It’s the best in the business, bar none. Here’s an important tidbit about Austin Country Club:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. Any advantage that longer hitters have is neutralized on most drives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n