Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Who's In The Match Play Final Four?

   Finally, a week where all the top players in professional golf are together.

   It's only taken until the end of February so let's see...the PGA Championship was in August, which means it's been....too many months.

   I'm a big fan of match play golf. There's a different kind of drama to it and it forces players to play differently. They can't play just to make the weekend. They have to make something happen.

   The bracket for this week's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is drawn up like the NCAA tournament bracket with Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods as the top seeds. The fun is in the match-ups, both starting out and what may happen down the line.

   In Woods' bracket, there are first-round matches pitting Bubba Watson against Bill Haas and Mark Wilson against Dustin Johnson. There's also Geoff Ogivly against Padraig Harrington.

   So, if Woods can beat Thomas Bjorn in his first match, he'll have to play his way through two of the aforementioned six players just to reach the finals where he could face Paul Casey, who seems to make an annual appearance in the finals at Dove Mountain.

   How about the first-round match between Twitter stars Stewart Cink and defending champion Ian Poulter? Should the tour suspend its rules and allow them to tweet during play?

   Potential second-round match-ups: Mickelson against Rickie Fowler and Westwood against Anthony Kim.

   Who do I have in my final four?

   I'm taking Westwood, Bubba, Kaymer and Fowler.

   Given my record in picking winners, they may be gone by lunchtime Wednesday.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow good luck with Fowler.

Id like to see a Mahan-McDowell final with Mahan getting the win this time.