Fowler, who has posted four top-15 finishes in his last eight starts, said the battle began early Wednesday.
AUSTIN, Texas — Rickie Fowler said he’s not a fan of pool play at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. And he admitted, openly and honestly, that he made the trip to the Texas capital as a means back into the field at Augusta National in two weeks.
But Fowler must have been pleased with the gift basket he received Wednesday during the tournament’s opening round at Austin Country Club.
Fowler, ranked 59th in the world and in need of a big showing to get back into the top 50 and secure an automatic berth into the Masters, posted a bogey on the first hole and fell behind early. But he seized opportunity as world No. 2 Jon Rahm fought his putter on the back nine. In the end, Fowler beat Rahm, 2 and 1, to put himself in solid position to reach the knockout stage.
“Jon struggled a little today. I know him quite well and we always have fun playing together. That wasn’t the normal Jon Rahm and what I was exactly expecting to face,” Fowler said. “We both struggled a little bit on the greens. Just happened to hit it a little bit better than him today. That’s match play. Never know what you’re going to get.
“In golf, just about anyone can beat anyone, especially this week with the guys that are out here. Yeah, fortunate to come out on top. I know Jon will be tough for the boys next couple matches. I’ve got to take care of business on my end.”
But he’ll need to claw and scratch his way out of pool play in what will be the event’s finale after falling to Fowler. The Spaniard will square off Thursday against Keith Mitchell, who tied Billy Horschel in his opening match.
Fowler, who has posted four top-15 finishes in his last eight starts, said the competition started early on Wednesday, when he bumped into Rahm in the gym and the two discussed their outfits.
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For the fashion-conscious Fowler, that meant the stakes were instantly high.
“I was finishing my warmup and he was coming in to start his, and we were both in all black. We started matching, and he was joking about if we were matching out there today,” Fowler said. “I was like, well, I’ve got kind of a tropical, floral shirt, and he’s like, I do, too. I was like, mine is black. He’s like, all right, mine is white.
The loaded field in Austin has produced some must-watch matches for pool play.
Who’s ready for some match play?
The PGA Tour’s best – 64 of the world’s top 77 players – are bound for Austin Country Club this week for the final playing of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. The famed club in the Texas capital has been the host of the Match Play since 2016 when Dell became the title sponsor. As one of the Tour’s designated events for the season, the loaded field will be competing for a tournament-record purse of $20 million in its final year.
For those unfamiliar with the format, here’s how it goes: The 64 players are seeded and placed in 16 different groups. Golfers play everyone in their group in matches from Wednesday-Friday and earn one point for a win and half a point for a tie. The 16 group winners with the most points will then advance to the knockout stage with the Round of 16 on Saturday morning, the quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon, semifinals on Sunday morning final and third place-matches on Sunday afternoon.
With a great field comes some must-watch matches. Here are 10 showdowns you won’t want to miss at the 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
Due to changes to the PGA Tour schedule, the late March date (on the back end of the Florida Swing) is expected to be filled by the Cadence Bank Houston Open.
Austin Country Club has hosted the Match Play since 2016 when Dell became the title sponsor. At the time, the World Golf Championships were considered the highest-ranking tournaments in golf behind the four majors and the Players Championship, the Tour’s flagship event.
But according to reporting by Bohls – who has six times been named the Texas sportswriter of the year by the National Sports Media Association – a cluster of members from the pristine Austin Country Club had turned away from supporting the tournament.
The Tour paid the ACC almost $2 million for last year’s event, which former Texas Longhorn Scottie Scheffler won, and had offered the club an annual paycheck of $3 million in addition to two free tickets for the 650 full members. But that was rejected by the club before it was ever put to a vote …
Unfortunately, the two parties were close in August, but LIV Golf rocked the golf world and forced the Tour into changes like a shortened calendar and elevated events offering purses of $20 million. The club membership had passed the extension by 57 percent with (after initially approving the event by more than 90 percent) with only 46 negative votes from those who have come to be called the 46ers.
While golf fans in Austin are surely saddened by the news, so are many of the charity groups that have benefited from the event. According to Bohls, the tournament donated more than $6 million to local charities, including the Dell Children’s Medical Center.
Quoting from a well-connected source, Bohls said club members were hoping for an abnormally large payday from the PGA Tour. This led to a breakdown in negotiations and when the club’s members were interested in coming back to the table, circumstances changed.
It appears the club overplayed its hand and got greedy because ACC has grand plans like a brand new clubhouse, which won’t be cheap, and some in the PGA Tour hierarchy got ticked off with neither side willing to compromise and ACC unwilling to accept the PGA’s generous offer.
“They got a little greedy,” the source said of the club. “They thought the Tour was a never-ending checkbook. We offered a huge sum of money. Every party has been at fault. Egos on both sides.” … There is no alternative site in Austin because the PGA Tour considers both Barton Creek and The Hills as “operational nightmares.”
Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson are among the winners at Austin Country Club.
AUSTIN, Texas — It seemed a match made in heaven, a glitzy, emerging tech center, a golf course that sparkles along the Colorado River (under the picturesque Pennybacker Bridge) and all in a format that pits the best players in the world against each other in match play.
After moving the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play event to Texas’ capital in 2016, large crowds and Lone Star hospitality made the event one of the most popular on the PGA Tour.
View photos of Billy Horschel throughout his career.
The biggest Florida Gators fan you’ll find on Tour, Billy Horschel loves the game as much as he loves his alma mater.
A seven-time winner on the PGA Tour, Horschel has had plenty of close brushes with history. In 2013, he was a weekend co-leader with Phil Mickelson and finished T-4 at the U.S. Open, his first career major as a professional.
Since then, Horschel’s best finish in a major was at the 2016 Masters (T-17) and the 2022 Open Championship (T-21). It hasn’t been all doom and gloom for Horschel though. He capped off a fantastic year in 2014 with a great playoff run. Horschel finished the year with back-to-back wins at the BMW Championship and the TOUR Championship.
More recently, Horschel won the 2021 WGC-Dell Technology Match Play, defeating Scottie Scheffler 2&1 in the finals, and cruised to win the 2022 Memorial by four shots.
Despite always being around the top of leaderboards year in and year out, Horschel has yet to represent the United States in team competitions as a professional. Thrice repping the stars and stripes as an amateur, Horschel was on the 2007 Walker Cup team and the 2007 and 2008 Arnold Palmer Cup teams.
At 35 years old, Horschel may finally get the nod at the 2022 Presidents Cup, further cementing his legacy as a top-tier pro during the past decade.
This marriage has been a good one, and this is no time to break it up.
AUSTIN, Texas — Keep the Dell at Austin Country Club.
For a non-golfing, non-member who doesn’t have the $100,000 to become a member or the knee cartilage to enjoy said membership if I could survive the eight-year waiting list, it just feels right.
Where else in the state can you walk the course and stand a few feet from former world No. 1s Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth on the same day you run into Texas golf legends, Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite?
You won’t hear a whole lot of disagreement when it comes to Austin and golf being a great marriage, but that’s never been up for debate.
The biggest question isn’t about what but where the tournament should be.
The breathtaking view from the Pennybacker Bridge is but one reason the 650 members should vote yes sometime this fall, or later, when it comes time to decide on extending the club’s hosting agreement with the PGA Tour.
“We know we’re doing a lot of great things by hosting an event like this,” said the club’s head golf professional, Dale Morgan. “These different kinds of events are hosted all around town, and it’s good to bring things in to keep our city growing and keep it going the way we want. We’ll see what happens. The membership will have that opportunity to make that choice and go from there.”
If they go with a thumbs down, 2023 will be the last time we see the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on these grounds.
Now, that doesn’t mean the event would leave the 512.
More than one person at Thursday’s second day of pool play told me that the newly designed Hills at Lakeway and Barton Creek Country Club would love to host this annual gathering of the sport’s best 64, and who could blame them? When the best and the brightest of the profession convene in your city once a year for an event that’s not a major, it’s a real boon not only for the club itself but also for the city.
Boats full of spectators watch the World Golf Championship’s Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club from Lake Austin on Friday, March 25, 2022.
The reported $1 million annual guarantee from the PGA is a drop in the bucket, but one can’t put a price tag on what an event of this magnitude can bring, not only in economic impact but also in further establishing Austin’s reputation as an international city.
Add the $5 million or so in annual charitable contributions each year, and there is plenty of good to be had by keeping it here.
Austin City Limits, Formula One, and South by Southwest bring new faces into town on an annual basis, and this event does the same while producing a tidy live gate in addition to a million-plus eyeballs on television worldwide.
The members can agree on one thing: It’s one of the PGA events outside the four majors that gets a red circle on the calendar. The top golfers in the world meeting up once a year to go mano a mano in one of the five coolest cities in America? Sounds like a win-win.
“It’s a tournament I always look forward to,” Rahm said. “It’s a nice break in the thick of the season. When things are starting to get a little bit more intense, to have an event in which it’s match play, it’s fun; it’s a lot more exciting, at least for me.”
Curt Fisher, a retired IT sales professional, moved here from the Metroplex 22 years ago, took advantage of a drop in the economy in the dot-com bust, and purchased a membership at somewhere south of the $100,000-plus it’s costing nowadays.
Fisher describes his opinion on the tournament as a love-hate relationship. At 78, playing a couple of rounds and hanging out with fellow retirees has become part of his weekly routine, but in October it changes when the course is shut down for a couple of weeks while the groundskeepers overseed the Bermuda grass with rye to make for that pretty green stuff we see each March.
So let’s start with the hate part.
“What I don’t like is the disturbance it does through the year,” Fisher told me outside the popular 1899 Club on Thursday. “It takes us off the course for a month. It’s two weeks in October for overseed and two weeks during the tournament, and we don’t get a reduction in dues.”
When the course isn’t available to members, the club, to its credit, does set up tee times at other local spots such as Falconhead, but it isn’t home.
And the good?
“It’s just tremendous,” he said. “It serves Austin well, and it highlights the club, the course, and the town. That probably brings another 200 people a week moving here.”
So Fisher has given us both sides of the issue from a member standpoint. So how would he vote?
“My preference is that we don’t renew it and that Barton Creek or someone else pick it up to keep as an Austin venue. This is just so great to see these guys play.”
But you would rather them play at another club?
“That’s right,” he said with a chuckle.
University of Texas baseball legend Seth Johnston, 39, has been a junior member for five years but will become a full-fledged member on his next birthday. Johnston and former college teammates Huston Street and Buck Cody have played countless rounds here.
Johnston, who works here in commercial real estate, as does Cody, won’t have a vote until he becomes a full member but understands why the vote gets tighter each time.
“It’s tricky,” he said. “I’ll say it’s great for the city and our businesses, and of course, it’s a great week for golf.”
After Sunday’s title match, things will return to normal at ACC. Hospitality workers and volunteers will compete in the club’s Am-Am tournament next week with the annual Club Championship slated to begin March 31.
And somewhere, Michael Dell, club president Mike McClelland and some really influential people are having important conversations regarding the future of one of the most fun events of the year.
This marriage has been a good one, and this is no time to break it up.
“I’ve learned a lot being in this position about how you prepare for the afternoon rounds, and I think that helped me today.”
Kevin Kisner is officially annoying his opponents at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
“It gets tiring whenever you’re in the fairway and on the green every time and you hoop a few putts,” he said. “They get sick of that quickly.”
Having already eliminated Justin Thomas, Marc Leishman, and Luke List in the group stage, Kisner rallied from a 3-down deficit with four holes to go and beat Adam Scott on the 18th hole in the Round of 16. Then he downed Will Zalatoris in the afternoon to advance to the semifinals for the third time at Austin Country Club (2018 and ’19 previously).
“It’s kind of crazy how much good fortune I’ve had at this golf course and this tournament,” Kisner said.
Kevin Kisner now 5-0-0 for the week, advances to the semifinals for the 3rd time since 2018.
Kisner now 13-0-0 when he wins the 1st hole at Austin CC. He is 1 of 3 players in @DellMatchPlay history with a .750 match win pct & 20+ victories (Tiger Woods and Geoff Ogilvy).
For some unknown reason, it hasn’t helped him get chosen to the U.S. Ryder Cup team, but Kisner has developed a reputation as a match-play specialist. He won the Dell Match Play in 2019, and the victory over Zalatoris earned him his 21st career victory in this competition since making his debut in 2016, the most of any player in that span, and has won 13 of his last 14 matches (21-6-1 overall).
“Holing those putts to win never gets old,” he said after dispatching Scott.
That he even had a chance to do so was remarkable, given that not a single competitor in the history of the event had rallied from being 3 down with four holes to play.
The momentum of the match shifted when he wedged to 4 feet at the 15th and canned the birdie putt to win the hole. Then he holed a bunker shot for eagle at 16.
“It was pretty much make it or go home,” Kisner said. “I couldn’t see it go in, but he said it trickled in like a putt. Those are things you dream about.”
Kisner went on to win, 1 up.
Through this morning's quarterfinal matches, players at Austin CC have a record of 1-221-6 when 3+ down through 14 holes. https://t.co/71s7u8YZWN
He caught another break when Zalatoris, his quarterfinals opponent, needed 22 holes to edge Kevin Na.
“I’ve been laying around on the couch in the locker room for an hour and he’s not really — I mean, shoving down a sandwich and going to the first tee, 85 degrees, wind blowing 20, greens rolling 14, it’s not the easiest in the world to get right back into it,” Kisner said. “I’ve learned a lot being in this position about how you prepare for the afternoon rounds, and I think that helped me today.”
Kisner won three of the first four holes – two of them with pars – and built a 3-up lead at the turn. Of his 39-foot birdie putt at the par-3 11th to extend the lead to 4 up, he said, “I’ve just had that putt a bunch, so I knew exactly what it did, and I got to see Will before me.”
Kisner went 5-up a hole later before losing the 13th with a bogey but closed out the match with a pair of pars for the 4-and-3 victory. That sets up a semifinal match with Corey Conners.
“He’s a hell of a ball-striker, so I’ll have to have my ‘A’ game on the ball-striking just to keep being around him. He hits it longer than I do and stripes the hell out of it. All I’ll try to do is annoy him with my putter,” Kisner said.
Asked if he pays much attention to the bracket and who he’ll face next, Kisner said, “They all look the same to me. No, I have no idea. I asked (the Tour media official) on the way in who I was playing next. I asked Brooks Koepka in the locker room after the first match if we were playing each other, and he’s like, ‘No, I’m playing DJ in 30 minutes.’ I don’t ever look, man. They tell me when we tee off, and we’ll go from there.”
After four days of grueling matches, it’s time to crown a winner. The final four players at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play are set to do battle Sunday at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas.
Scottie Scheffler, after falling to Billy Horschel last season in the championship match, beat the Florida Gator Saturday morning, then took down Seamus Power to advance to the semifinals. If he wins Sunday, he’ll become the No. 1 player in the world.
Kevin Kisner has advanced to the semifinals for the third time since 2018 after coming from behind to beat Adam Scott and then taking care of Will Zalatoris in the afternoon.
The 2017 champion at this event, Dustin Johnson, and Corey Conners round out the final four.
Here’s everything you need to know for Sunday’s fifth day of matches at the 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. All times Eastern.
Four players will be left for the two semifinal matches. Winners advance to the final, while the semifinal losers will compete in a third-place match. There will be no tied matches. Matches all square after 18 holes will extend on Nos. 12 through 18 and repeated if necessary until there is a match winner.
Sunday afternoon
Consolation match for third place and championship match to determine the 2022 Match Play winner. There will be no tied matches. Matches all square after 18 holes will extend on Nos. 12 through 18 and repeated if necessary until there is a match winner.
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Abraham Ancer skipped breakfast, but they were almost still serving that meal by the time he closed out Collin Morikawa 7 and 6.
Abraham Ancer was in the final match to tee off in Saturday’s morning Round of 16 session of the WGC-Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas. And yet Ancer didn’t have an appetite for pancakes or an omelette. He said he skipped breakfast before some big-game hunting. He only had a cup of coffee before taking on World No. 2 Collin Morikawa.
The coffee provided quite a jolt to Ancer’s game and the match didn’t last much longer than a cup of Joe as he crushed Morikawa 7 and 6 to advance to the Elite 8 of golf’s version of March Madness.
Ancer grabbed the lead at the third hole at Austin Country Club with a birdie and never looked back. In fact, he hasn’t trailed in any of his four matches so far this week. Morikawa had no answer for the 31-year-old Mexican who made a birdie at No. 6, the first of four straight holes he won to take a commanding 5-up lead at the turn. Ancer birdied his final four holes and now has made 11 birdies in his last 25 holes dating back to Friday’s victory over Webb Simpson.
“I just kept thinking in my head that I was down in the match and I had to fight to make birdies and it paid off,” Ancer said.
Abraham Ancer just beat Collin Morikawa 7&6.
He has not yet trailed in a match this week. He's made 11 birdies in his last 25 holes dating back to yesterday.
How did Ancer explain his dominant performance over the reigning Champion Golfer of the Year?
“Just being in the fairway and telling myself that I’m going against one of the best ball strikers in the world, maybe the best, so I had to hit the ball perfect and make some putts,” Ancer said. “Thankfully that was the case.”
The added benefit for Ancer of making short work of Morikawa was two-fold – more time to eat and rest.
“You want to save as much energy as you can,” he said. “Every time you have a chance to close out a match you want to do it as soon as possible.”
How did Ancer plan to spend his extended break before his quarterfinal duel with Corey Conners, the No. 36 seed?
“I’m going to have some lunch, keep the body moving,” Ancer said. “I don’t want to get stiff, and just get ready to go again.”
It’s now win or go home at the Match Play in Austin, Texas.
After three days of round-robin pool play, the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is headed to the weekend. From here on in, it’s single-elimination.
Lose and go home.
The bracket at Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas, started with 64 of the top 69 players in the world. Now it’s down to 16.
World No. 1 Jon Rahm is set to do battle with Brooks Koepka, who went 3-0-0 in group play. Scottie Scheffler and Billy Horschel, last season’s championship match, both made it to the weekend and will square off Saturday morning.
Here’s everything you need to know for Saturday’s fourth day of matches at the 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. All times Eastern.
Round of 16 will have eight matches. Single elimination. Winners advance to the quarterfinals. There will be no tied matches. Matches all square after 18 holes will extend on Nos. 10 through 18 and repeated if necessary until there is a match winner.
Saturday afternoon
Quarterfinals for the remaining eight players. Winners advance to semifinals. There will be no tied matches. Matches all square after 18 holes will extend on Nos. 10 through 18 and repeated if necessary until there is a match winner.
Sunday morning
Four players will be left for the two semifinal matches. Winners advance to the final, while the semifinal losers will compete in a third-place match. There will be no tied matches. Matches all square after 18 holes will extend on Nos. 12 through 18 and repeated if necessary until there is a match winner.
Sunday afternoon
Consolation match for third place and championship match to determine the 2022 Match Play winner. There will be no tied matches. Matches all square after 18 holes will extend on Nos. 12 through 18 and repeated if necessary until there is a match winner.
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