The PGA Tour will shake up its format and give fans and players what could be the final Match Play event for quite some time. The top players on the PGA Tour will compete in a three-day Round Robin event, matched up against three other players in 16 groups of four, using Match Play scoring to determine which player wins and advances to the single-elimination rounds.
The same concept applies despite the scoring difference. 1 point will be awarded to the player who winds up with the lower score on a particular hole, while a 0.5 point will go to both players if they tie on a hole. Players who lose a hole will receive 0 points. The goal is to have the most points by the time the Round Robin matchup concludes. Ties at the end of a Round Robin matchup don’t have a mandatory sudden-death playoff. That is reserved for the possibility of determining the winner of the four-man group if there are two or more players with the same score at the conclusion of the three-day Round Robin. In this scenario, scoring returns to stroke play in a sudden-death playoff hole format. The same applies to the single-elimination rounds if players wind up with a tied Match Play score at the conclusion of 18 holes. 18 holes aren’t a necessity either, as a player will be declared the winner if he is leading by more points than there are holes left on the course. As a result, Saturday and Sunday will each have two rounds held at Austin CC, with the Round of 16 and quarterfinals occurring on Saturday, followed by the Semi-Final and Championship Match on Sunday, which also includes the Consolation Championship Match.
The goal is still to have as few strokes as possible on a particular hole. However, the Match Play scoring system will create a lot of chaos and fun opportunities for players to build big leads and mount comebacks during the first three Round Robin stages and Round of 16 single-elimination matchups. Before we get to my favorite outright winners in an absolutely loaded field, let’s first check out the Austin CC course and a few key stats that will help players yield high Match Play scores.
WGC-Dell Technologies Match PlayCourse Preview
Austin Country Club Course
Designed by legendary golf architect Pete Dye, Austin Country Club has a unique layout based on the landscape changes players must adapt to when transitioning from the front nine to the back nine. Built within the hills of Texas, Austin CC has a lot of coarse vegetation and undulating fairways and greens that…
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