Preview and Prediction for the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Match Play
Outside of the majors, the WGC Cadillac Match Play is one of the more exciting golf tournaments on format alone. Add in a new revamped playing schedule, and the weekend for the Match Play could be as fun as watching Tiger Woods play big-game cat to Stephen Ames’ mouse.
The new format is best explained by CBSSports.com’s Kyle Porter, who likens the first three days of the tournament, in principle, to the World Cup. In the World Cup, two teams from each group advance to the single-elimination part of the tournament. The new Match Play format advances a single best performer from each group to Saturday morning's Sweet 16 (Swingin’ 16?).
Saturday begins with the round of 16 in the morning with the quarterfinals following in the afternoon. The semifinals start Sunday morning, with the finals following in the afternoon.
Let’s get on with it. Read on for the preview and prediction for the Match Play.
Where to Watch and Tournament Info
1 of 6
Defending Champion: Jason Day
Where
TPC Harding Park, San Francisco, California
7,115 yards, Par 71
What
Total Purse: $9,250,000
Winning Share: $1,570,000
FedEx Points to Winner: 550
When
Wednesday
Group Play (32 matches)
4-10 p.m. ET, Golf Channel
Thursday
Group Play (32 matches)
4-10 p.m. ET, Golf Channel
Friday
Group Play (32 Matches), 5-10 p.m. ET, Golf Channel
Saturday
Round of 16 and Quarterfinal Matches
3-7:30 p.m. ET, Golf Channel; 7:30-11 p.m. ET, NBC
Sunday
Semifinal Matches and Final Matches
9:30-1:30 p.m. ET, Golf Channel; 2-6 p.m. ET, NBC
Notable Match Play Records
2 of 6
Jason Day: 14-3
Matt Kuchar: 17-4
Hunter Mahan: 16-6
Ian Poulter: 23-11
Rory McIlroy: 11-6
Victor Dubuisson: 5-1
Paul Casey: 16-9
Adam Scott: 14-12
Records come courtesy of AdamSarson.com.
Biggest Storylines
3 of 6
Exit, Stage Lefty
Phil Mickelson will be the only player from the world’s top 50 to say ixnay on the atchmay laypay.
Lefty cited “personal reasons” for his withdrawal from the event in a statement. Given how he played at Augusta National Golf Club, it would have been interesting to see how he tackled the new layout for the tournament.
"I'm really happy with the new format and TPC Harding Park is a terrific setting for match play, so it's unfortunate that I won't be able to play this year," said Mickelson in Kyle Porter’s CBSSports.com’s piece.
He’ll be missed though quickly forgotten as this incredibly deep field gets to it on Wednesday.
No More Bloody Wednesday
Over the years, it wasn’t uncommon for one of the world’s best players to lose his match on Wednesday back when it was single elimination from Day 1. That cheated fans of the best players, not to mention said player's bid for a salty paycheck ($1,525,000 to the winner...please and thank you). Hence the term "Bloody Wednesday."
The new round-robin approach presents 16 groups with the top 16 players each getting their own slice of the pool. Three randomly drawn players will fill the remaining slots in the group. The single best player over the first three days advances to the weekend.
Instead of McIlroy playing just 18 holes, he and everyone else play at least 54 holes, thus rewarding the player who shot best over three days instead of just one 18-hole snapshot.
Why did it take so many years to come up with this?
Kyle Porter of CBSSports.com wrote, “I like the group style for two reasons. First, it takes a little bit of the randomness out of it and we don't have McIlroy and Spieth packing after the first day. Second, groups are more fun than pairings.”
Can Jason Day Repeat?
Jason Day stands atop the world with his impressive 14-3 record in match play. He won this event last year and clearly has the right makeup for one-on-one action.
Day drew Zach Johnson (7-10), Branden Grace (0-2) and Charley Hoffman (0-1) in his group. Hoffman was the surprise of the Masters, playing in Saturday’s final group and Sunday’s penultimate pairing.
In this grouping, it would appear Day has the clear advantage and should easily advance to the weekend.
Should Day repeat, he would match Woods as the only other back-to-back winner of this event.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
The Favorites
4 of 6
The 2015 Masters Champion
Spieth’s group isn’t quite as potent on paper, but it still packs a powerful lineup. Spieth can’t coast, as he’ll have to contend with the always dangerous Lee Westwood and Matt Every, who successfully defended his title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Spieth earned three wins last year in his Match Play debut before Ernie Els beat him.
The way Spieth counterpunched Justin Rose blow for blow Sunday at the Masters makes Spieth an extremely tough player to spar hole by hole.
That could set up a dream matchup of the No. 2 player in the world vs. ...
The World No. 1
Lost amidst the nearly perfect run Spieth put down at Augusta was the world No. 1 playing a great weekend to get into the top five at the Masters.
For all the talk of Spieth being this “new face of the game,” people forgot that McIlroy is only 25, has won four majors and was last year’s “new face of the game.” It was the perfect illustration how tasty the flavor of the month is when you have a perfectly aging Bordeaux getting better with time. Let’s hope Spieth is more craft brew than Twisted Tea.
McIlroy earned the top seed but also got a pretty tough group, including one player, Billy Horschel, who was undaunted by McIlroy during the FedEx Cup playoffs in 2014.
Brandt Snedeker and Jason Dufner round out this “group from hell,” a group that possess five major titles and two FedEx Cup champions.
The Defending Match Play Champion
Day was in total control of his win a year ago, and when he’s on top of his game, he can play like a world No. 1.
Day said in Bob Harig’s ESPN.com story following the 2014 Match Play:
"The great thing about this is every day felt like Sunday. It's good experience. It's good to battle your nerves and understand what you can feel under the pump. To keep fighting until the end is really what it's all about. I really wanted this badly.
"
Day had a great opening round at the Masters and then flattened out. He’ll want to get back to that early-season form that saw him rattle off four top-five finishes. He just finished tied for fourth at the Zurich Classic, so it looks like he's got his mojo back.
The Dark Horses
5 of 6
Lee Westwood
So as far as dark horses go, any of the European players seem like a good bet seeing as they have a knack for crushing the United States in the Ryder Cup.
Westwood, 11-15 in the WGC Match Play, looks like that kind of player. He’s fresh off a win in the Indonesian Masters, a tournament he’s now won three times, and that should give him a jolt of added confidence.
“Winning never gets any easier and it was a tough day out there,” Westwood said in a Reuters story (via TheGuardian.com). I didn’t have the best of starts but battled back and made a couple of birdies around the turn to get more comfortable before three terrible putts on the last three greens.”
Paul Casey
Paul Casey, another citizen of the UK, has a potent 16-9 record in this tournament.
He's coming off a Masters tournament that saw him make the cut, no small feat for the man who hadn’t played at Augusta since 2012.
Casey drew Adam Scott’s group, which also has Chris Kirk, a surprise contender in last year’s FedEx Cup playoffs, and Francesco Molinari.
Casey has the potential to get out of this group. Scott’s record in the Match Play isn’t great at 14-12—the same could be said for Kirk (0-1) and Molinari (1-5). Casey will have to be the best of the group over three days in order to advance, and that favors Scott.
Sergio Garcia
Sergio Garcia gets a fairly easy pass to the weekend. His best contender in his group is Jamie Donaldson, one of the better players on the European PGA Tour. Bernd Wiesberger and Tommy Fleetwood round out the group.
Garcia, as everyone knows, has the talent to win big tournaments. He doesn’t win the big tournaments for one reason: Garcia. He just can’t get out of his way, but that improved putter is always a deadly weapon in match play, and he has 15 match wins in this tournament.
Prediction
6 of 6
Winner: Rory McIlroy
All the talk about Spieth this and Spieth that since the Masters must really stick in McIlroy's craw.
Were it not for a forgettable front nine Friday at the Masters, McIlroy would have been in serious contention for the career Grand Slam.
He's 11-6 in match play and 2-0-1 in the Ryder Cup.
He's in a tough group with Horschel, Dufner and Snedeker, and coming out of that will only sharpen his edge.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
