DID YOU KNOW – WGC – DELL MATCH PLAY
• Rory McIlroy is trying to follow in the footsteps of Tiger Woods (2003-2004) and make a successful defence of the WGC – Dell Match Play. Should he win for the second consecutive season, he would join Tiger Woods (2003-04, 08) and Geoff Ogilvy (2006 and 2009) as the only players to win the event twice.
• Should McIlroy win for the second season in a row, the Northern Irishman would join Tiger Woods as the only other player to make a successful defence of a WGC event.
• Austin Country Club is the sixth different venue to stage the match play contest. The previous five are La Costa Resort & Spa (1999-2000, 2002-2006), Metropolitan Golf Club (2001), The Galley at Dove Mountain (2007-2008, 2013-2014), Ritz-Carlton Golf Club (2009-2012) and TPC Harding Park (2015).
• Austin Country Club will make history as this is the first time the state of Texas has staged a European Tour event played on American soil.
• Austin Country Club is playing host to a WGC event for the first time.
• Of all the WGC events, the WGC – Dell Match Play has been the most successful for European Tour Members, producing six different winners. They are: Darren Clarke (2000), Henrik Stenson (2007), Geoff Ogilvy (2009), Ian Poulter (2010), Luke Donald (2011) and Rory McIlroy (2015).
• There will be 31 European Tour Members competing at Austin Country Club in 2016. There are seven of the 31 will be making their Match Play debuts. They are: Byeong Hun An, Russell Knox, Emiliano Grillo, David Lingmerth, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jaco Van Zyl and Thomas Pieters.. This brings the total number of European Tour Members to have competed in the WGC – Dell Match Play since 1999 to 126.
