Who doesn’t love match play golf? Yep, it’s the second World Golf Championships event of the year as this week we return to Austin Country Club in Texas for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
This unique format – and an interesting layout – requires some careful thinking so we have poured through the form books and stats sheets to bring you a trio of players we believe could be primed for success this week.
So without further ado…
Pick of the favourites: Rory McIlroy
View player profile
We thought about Louis, we thought about Reed, we considered Rahm, and Sergio, but we decided to go with Rory McIlroy. Rors has made the semi-finals in this event in three of the last five years, winning in California back in 2015 and losing out to Hunter Mahan in the final in Tucson five years ago. He beat fellow group member Gary Woodland in the final two years ago and boasts a record of 11-2-1 in the last two editions of the tournament. Since returning from his rib injury, he finished tied seventh in Mexico and tied fourth at Bay Hill on the US PGA Tour last week, not forgetting his runner-up finish at the BMW SA Open before his recovery period. Back at World Number Two now after leap-frogging defending champ Jason Day, is Rory peaking at the right time ahead of another shot at the career grand slam at Augusta in a couple of weeks...?
Form horse: Tommy Fleetwood
View player profile
After something of a year-long slump from mid-2015 to mid-2016, Tommy Fleetwood is back at his very best and flying at the top of The Race to Dubai this season almost one million points clear of the chasing pack. Since his win in Abu Dhabi in January, he finished runner-up at the WGC-Mexico Championship two weeks ago and tied tenth last week in Arnie's tournament - despite starting with a 78 on Thursday - to move to a career-high 33rd in the Official World Golf Ranking. This might be his debut at Austin Country Club, but he had a 100 per cent record in the group stage in San Francisco back in his last appearance in 2015 before falling at the last 16. He leads the European Tour for Greens in Regulation this season with a staggering 83 per cent which should stand him in good stead at a second-shot course that demands accurate iron play.
Wildcard: Ross Fisher
View player profile
After playing his way into this week's field with a superb final-round 65 and a tied third place finish in Mexico two week ago, Ross Fisher could be the outsider to keep an eye out for in Austin. This will be the Englishman's first appearance in the tournament since 2011 but he has plenty of previous match play experience and success on his C.V., not least reaching the semi-finals on his debut in this event back in 2009, the same year he won the Volvo World Match Play in Spain. Fisher also helped Europe to Ryder Cup victory with two points from four matches at Celtic Manor in 2010 - albeit in the team formats. One thing to note, however, is that Fisher has found himself in a hugely testing group featuring last year's runner-up, Louis Oosthuizen, plus in-form Japanese Hideki Matsuyama and US Ryder Cup skipper Jim Furyk, so he'll have to be at his very best to progress to the weekend knockout ties.
Those are our picks, now it’s time to make yours. Whether you are playing the
Fantasy Race to Dubai
or our new
Daily Fantasy Game
, be sure to make your picks before the event begins on Wednesday morning. Good luck!
