WGC-Dell Match Play: Tips for Your Brackets for the Top-5 Groups

Rory McIlroy and Gary Woodland faced off in the finals of last year’s WGC-Dell Match Play, but they had to survive the group stage in order to get there.

With a new title sponsor and a new host course, the WGC-Dell Match Play will be a week of firsts for the PGA Tour, but one thing that will stay the same is the format. The group stage, introduced last year, is designed to build tension throughout the week and give top players a chance to redeem themselves if they drop their opening match.

While the format might be a tad confusing to some fans, it’s very similar to that of soccer’s World Cup. There are 16 groups of four golfers; the first three days of the tournament are round-robin style, with the top player in each group advancing to the knockout stage. At that point, it switches over to a traditional bracket – something sports fans are all too familiar with this time of year.

Based on their world rankings, the 64 players in this week’s field were sorted into four tiers, with one member of each tier being placed in each group. As a result, the talent distribution is pretty even, but that doesn’t mean some groups aren’t stronger than others. After all, the world rankings don’t tell the whole story, and in the mano-a-mano format that is match play, there’s always more to talk about than skill alone.

Let’s go five deep and take a look at the top five most intriguing groups at this week’s WGC-Match Play.

Next: Group 1