Furyk, Ryo, Rory, Poulter, Els, Goosen, and Westwood Advance at Accenture

Like any match play event, day one at Accenture had shockers: Steve Stricker ejected. Padraig Harrington gone. Henrick Stenson withdrawing.  Tiger Woods coming out of hiding, which caused everything in golf to come to a screeching halt for a short time.  Well, everything except the matches that were still being played. 

For those deeper into golf, other eyebrow raisers included Ollie Wilson knocking off Miguel Angel Jimenez and Alvaro Quiros losing to Mike Weir, who has not distinguished himself since going to and leaving the stack and tilt.  Maybe this is a sign of Weir's resurgence.

The 32 remaining golfers tee it up again tomorrow, giving you another opportunity to pick winners or lose bets with your friends.  My results for day one were 18 for 32.  How were yours? Let’s see if I can up my percentage in Thursday’s round.  

If i'm on a roll, maybe I’ll swing by the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse Friday before and after Tiger's confab and see if there is any evidence of the Tiger confab.  Where is NCIS when we need them?  Hidden microphones.  Satellite tracking.  That sort of thing.

Back at The Matches, The Crystal Golf Ball Says: 

Jones Bracket
1. Ryo Ishikawa over Ross McGowan.  The kid can play. And he's learning English.

2. Robert Karlsson over Thongchai Jaidee, although you have to like anybody whose name begins with thong.

3. JM Singh over Matt Kuchar because he beat Padraig Harrington.

4. Ian Poulter over Adam Scott.  I’m still looking for that weekend purple outfit.

Hogan Bracket

1. Martin Kaymer over Tim Clark.  Clark is like the little engine who could, but Kaymer is the big German who can and does.

2.  Sergio Garcia over Anders Hansen.  Now that Sergio won, he must be on a roll. 

3.  Rory McIlroy over Ollie Wilson.  Rory just has too much talent, plus it’s that injured golfer thing.

4.  Robert Allenby over Luke Donald. Allenby’s played better lately, like that has anything to do with it, given Miguel Jimenez’s and Dustin Johnson’s losses. 

Player Bracket

1.  Lee Westwood over Nick Watney.  It’s not Sunday yet, so he’s not nervous yet.

2.  Ernie Els vs. Retief Goosen.  Can we just call this a halve?  One of these guys will have to win, but it will make me cry no matter who loses. If you want to watch elegant swings, this is the divine duo.

3.  Y.E. Yang over Ben Crane because Y.E. played more than one hole.

4.  Geoff Ogilvy over Camillo Villegas.  It’s a wardrobe war with these two model shaped guys, but Geoff seems to just plain love match play while Camillo is still in training. 

Snead Bracket

1.  Jim Furyk over Charl Schwartzl – oops el. Sorry, couldn't resist. Furyk will dig so deep to win a hole or a point that he could come out in China.  

2.  Stewart Cink over Sean Shawn O’Hair.  This is a tough call as O’Hair has a really fluid style when he gets going.  But you can’t argue with the extra confidence Cink has after an Open Championship and with his Twitter fans.  Cink got a bigger ovation on the first tee at the Presidents Cup than Tiger Woods. He even gave everybody "the celebrity wave." The guy’s practically a rock star. Who woulda thought.

3.  Mike Weir over Paul Casey.  Again, tough call. If Weir is back from mediocrity where most of us live most of the time, well, he’s a major champion.  Then again Paul Casey won the HSBC Match Play.

4.  Zach Johnson over Brian Gay. Zach Attack trumps wild wardrobe.