WGC Dell Match Play Event Preview

Learn about the course for the WGC Dell Match Play and what types of golfers are likely to succeed on it for PGA DFS.

Before jumping into the details of this week’s PGA Tour Event, I wanted to mention a timeline for this week from Frank and myself:

• THIS WEEKS EVENT STARTS ON WEDNESDAY MORNING!!!
• Monday: Course/Event Preview
• Tuesday: Cash article, GPP article, Cheat Sheet, PGA DFS Stream, Chat room (9pm EST) to answer questions

Without further ado, let’s jump into this week’s event:

Event Details

Event: WGC Dell Match Play

Dates: Wednesday March 24th through Sunday March 28th

Course:  Austin CC

Field:  64 players

Cut: N/A

Past Winners: Kisner (2019), Watson (2018), DJ (2017), Day (2016)

TV Coverage: 

• Wednesday-Friday: 2-8pm EST (Golf Channel) plus PGA Tour Live
• Saturday/Sunday: 10-2pm EST (Golf Channel), 2-6pm EST (NBC)
• Sunday: 10-2pm EST (Golf Channel), 3-7pm EST (NBC)

Event Format

• This week is one of the more unique and fun weeks on Tour. This is the PGA Tour’s version of March Madness. So before I talk about the course we need to understand the format.
• 64 players broken down into 16 pods of 4 players.
  • Each player will play an 18 hole match against each of the other 3 pod members. Whoever has the best record in the pod after everyone has played 3 matches will advance to the Sweet 16.
  • From there, it is single elimination matches until we get to a winner.
  • The bracket can be found https://fantasybracket.pgatour.com/print
  • Each player plays one match Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

DK Format

• Points:
  • Hole Won: 3 pts
  • Hole Halved: 0.75 pts
  • Hole Lost: -0.75 pts
  • Hole Not Played: +1.6 pts
  • Match Won: +5 pts
  • Match Halved: +2 pts
  • 3 Holes Won in a Row: +5 pts
  • No Holes Lost in Match: +7.5 pts

Strategy/Thoughts:

• Each player is guaranteed 3 rounds, but you need to capture upside in players because players who make the final 4 will get 7 rounds (since there is a final and 3^rd place match). One player making the final four can outscore 3-4 players combined score for the event.
• For GPP, you are going to have to make sure that you structure your lineup such that it is possible to have 4 players make the final 4. Every year in this event we literally see half the lineups in GPP drawing dead because people don’t pay attention and end up having their players play each other in round of 16 or round of 8.
  • You need to have 1 player from top left, 1 from bottom left, 1 from top right and 1 from bottom right.
  • Then fill in with 2 other players but make sure you don’t end up having 3 players from the same quadrant and don’t play 2 players from the same pod.
• For Cash Games, the strategy is going to be value based. This week DFS is a lot like gambling because you need to figure out odds that players win and advance out of their pod and figure who the weak matchups are. I will be going through all the matches to figure out where the value lies for betting and DFS.
• Thoughts on Scoring: You want to roster guys with high birdie upside because:
  • You get more points for winning a hole and then losing a hole then just tying 2 holes
  • Bonus for 3 winning holes in a row
  • Bonus for ending match early
• For the same reasons as the birdie upside above, we will want to target pods that have weak players because that allows us a chance to get some lopsided victories and rack up some points early.

Course Details

Course Description:

• Austin CC is a par 71 measuring in around 7,100 yards with 3 par 5s, 4 par 3s and 11 par 4s
• This is a Pete Dye designed golf course who also designed other challenging courses on Tour such as TPC Sawgrass and Hilton Head. His courses often feature a lot of risk reward and that is prevalent here as well as all 3 par 5s are reachable and there are 2 driveable par 4s on the back 9.
• In terms of what skills are needed on this course, it’s a bit different because it is match play and we aren’t looking for a person to be the best out of 154 players….we are only looking for them to beat their opponent that day.
  • As such, we want to lean heavily towards elite ball strikers because that puts a lot of pressure on their opponents.
  • With this being in Texas in March, there is a chance for some wind which puts it even more in the hands of the solid ball strikers.
• The course isn’t overly long and there is a lot of diversity in the yardage of the par 4s so we will see approach shots from every single yardage this week.
• The greens here are small Bermuda greens that are average speed on Tour.

What type of player typically succeeds here?

• Overall solid ball striker and one who has success in match play events in the past. This event isn’t like your typical PGA Tour event.

What areas of a player’s game will be tested the most this week?

• Largest emphasis:
  • Strokes Gained Approach
  • Strokes Gained Off the Tee
• Smaller emphasis:
  • Strokes Gained Putting
  • Strokes Gained Around the Green

Check back in on Tuesday for all of the other content.