Accenture Match Play 2012: Tiger Woods Says "Blah, Blah Blah," Plus Day 2 Picks

We are officially on to Day 2 at the Accenture Match Play.  My picks for Day 1 were about half wrong, which is typical.  On the other hand, they were about half right.  The next two days are the most fun at Accenture. 

Once we get to the weekend, there doesn’t seem to be enough matches.  You want more. And if one or two of your favorite players isn’t in the mix, it gets harder to pay attention. 

So, on to the crystal golf ball for Day 2 of the Duel in the Desert.

The rule from now on is to go with the hotter player.  If somebody wins five and four, that’s your guy.  If someone won five and four plays a guy who won in 20 holes, it’s a safer bet to pick the guy who won five and four.  Ride the dominant player to victory.

Here are the picks for Day 2:

1. Ernie Els over Peter Hanson

Ernie is making putts after a lesson from Nick Faldo. Els said about his first-round match with Luke Donald,

“I think he didn't want to play me and I sure as hell didn't want to play him the first round. It's a terrible ride home, believe me.  I feel for Luke.  He had nothing to lose, but everything to lose.  He's got a lot of pressure on him.  Yeah, I know exactly what it feels like.”

2. Kyle Stanley over Brandt Snedeker

Stanley avenges the playoff loss in San Diego at Farmer’s Insurance Open. “It's a big hitters golf course.  It's pretty long.  It sets up nice for me,” Stanley said.

3. Robert Rock over Mark Wilson

Rock beats paper and scissors, which you have to have heard a dozen times already today.   Couldn’t resist.  No good reason. 

Neither one is a youngster.  Robert Rock seems to have found his stride.  They’ve both won already this year.  Robert Rock has great Beatles hair which tilts the scale in his favor.   “I've been pretty lucky the past few weeks.  My game has been good up until today, really,” Rock said. “I maybe showed glimpses of the form I had over the past few holes.”

4. Dustin Johnson over Francesco Molinari 

They both went 20 holes, and neither one is known for great putting.  Then again, who needs putting when you can hole out from everywhere?

“Jim ( Furyk) pitched in I think on 13, and I pitched in right after to win the hole,” Johnson explained about his first round match.  “So then I chipped in again.  He hit it close on 16 and I chipped in and he missed.  So it was kind of a crazy match.”

5. Rory McIlroy over Peter Hansen

Rory’s just got talent. You’ve got to go that direction every time.  “That stretch where I won four in a row felt like a played some good golf,” McIlroy said. “It's another incentive waking up each morning and knowing that if you win your match at the end of that day, at the end of the week you could be World No.1.”

6. Keegan Bradley over Miguel Angel Jimenez

Miguel may be a double for the Most Interesting Man in the World, but Keegan Bradley seems to be on a roll.  Now that he got through the first match,  he’ll be tougher to stop.  “I played about as good as I could play.  I didn't miss a fairway or a green.  I saw a lot of birdies and that's always tough to beat,” Bradley said about his first-round match.

7. Jason Day over John Senden

Jason Day came back to life this week. These two Aussies would probably rather face guys from other countries than have to battle each other.  “I felt like I just won the tournament, and I just got through the first round,”  Day said after Round 1. 

8. Charl Schwartzel over Sang moon Bae

Unless Schwartzel has a really bad day, this is his for the taking.  “You play to what your opponent is doing,” Schwartzel said after defeating Gary Woodland.  “I kept hitting good shots into the greens and then he hit a few bad ones and that's how I won my holes.”

9. Martin Kaymer over David Toms

This is perhaps the toughest call so far.  Toms has a great record in this event no matter who he is playing. He glides along and just bunts his shots out into the middle of the golf course. Then he putts like a genius.  The better the greens, the more you have to like David Toms.  Yet, I'm picking Kaymer to win. 

“Two years ago when I came here…I didn't really enjoy match play because I felt like you could shoot a good score and still lose,” Kaymer explained.  “But now that you have only one opponent, one enemy if you want to say so, that you have to beat, and I really enjoy that battle now.”

10. Bubba Watson over Matt Kuchar

They’ve both gone deep in this event, but Bubba seems to embrace it.  Can’t wait to see him hit a few shots over cactus and creosote bushes as well as bunkers and boulders.  “The seeds mean—seeds mean something in other sports, you know,” Watson said. “When you can see your opponent and see what he's doing, you can play different shots or play safe over here.”

11. Steve Stricker over Louis Oosthuizen 

Stricker does not seem to have faded during his break. “If you are in every hole, you get it up‑and‑down, that puts a lot of pressure on the other guy,” Stricker said. “It was hard to finish off the match.  You are not in that situation very much.”

12.  Hunter Mahan over Y.E. Yang

Mahan is yearning for a big fat match play win.  It will make him look good when Ryder Cup points and picks come up later this year.  “You can hit good shots and be 30 feet and putt over a mound,” Mahan said about the course. 

13.  Lee Westwood over Robert Karlsson 

Westwood has already done better than he has in past events here.  Maybe he’s finally on a roll.   “You can't cruise your way into the tournament.  You can't wedge your way in there, as I do in a lot of tournaments,” Westwood said. 

“You have got to come out quick and try to make as many birdies as possible as fast as possible.”

14.  Tiger Woods over Nick Watney

This is probably too close to call.  Woods isn’t quite back, and Watney isn’t quite up to last year’s form. Woods said after Day 1,

“I've got to get a better feel for my distances out here.  Just the numbers that we can hit the golf ball out here is just amazing, with the altitude and with the wind and being warm. There's a lot of numbers going on, taking off percentages and then, you know, for how long is this ball going to stay in the air versus a short iron and blah, blah, blah.  So it's tough.”

15. Matteo Manassero over Martin Laird

Manassero got past Webb Simpson and that says a lot. “Today without even paying—well, without even seeing them, I made like six or seven birdies.  And that sometimes doesn't happen to me on stroke play, and I kind of struggle to make birdies,” Manassero said.  “My attitude was spot on, and that's important.  So without doing something, just it gets better.”

16. Paul Lawrie over Ryo Ishikawa 

If Lawrie has gotten this far, he has the game to continue. “My boys are pretty good players and they drag me out now and again to play golf when I'm home,” Lawrie said. “I've been in the gym a wee bit.  I'm a little fitter and a little leaner.  So I think the whole thing combined has made me better.”  

He also has a bus with his name on it in Aberdeen, Scotland, created by one of his sponsors, The First Group. “I've made it.  I've got my name on a bus.”

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the USGA, PGA Tour or PGA of America.