AUSTIN, Texas — It’s official. The Dell Technologies Match Play is dead, at least for the foreseeable future.
Jordan Uppleger, vice president and executive director of PGA Tour championship management, made the announcement to the media on Monday at Austin Country Club.
“We’re formally announcing today that the 2023 World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play will be the final playing of the event here at Austin Country Club, and not be included on the 2024 calendar or moving forward,” Uppleger said.
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“The event has had an incredible run here at Austin Country Club.”
“I was told you had to have three main components to have a successful event, you had to have an active title sponsor, an engaging country club and a supporting community and client base. And there is no doubt that this event has exceeded all of those expectations as we’ve been here since 2016.”
As part of the announcement, Uppleger added that no match-play event will be included on next year’s PGA Tour schedule.
In February, Golfweek reported that the event would be shuttered after this year’s playing. Its spot in the 2024 schedule, which is typically in late March on the back end of the Florida Swing, is expected to be filled by the Cadence Bank Houston Open, unless it prefers a date in the late April/early May timeframe instead as part of a shuffling of events.
On Monday, Uppleger said the Tour would look to Austin again if the situation was right in the future. During the tournament’s seven-year run, the WGC event has been one of the hottest tickets on Tour, and with the picturesque Pennybacker Bridge framing the Colorado River, the setting at Austin Country Club has become among the circuit’s most indelible.
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.
“I think you’ve seen this throughout our history. Look at the markets we’ve been in, and we’ve had to exit markets for certain reasons,” Uppleger said. “And obviously, we would look at Austin, Texas, in the future. It’s not on the ’24 calendar, but clearly look at the success that we’ve had here. There’s no doubt that our team would be looking at that.”
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