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

Group 1: Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Victor Dubuisson, Jamie Donaldson

This group has just about everything. The main event will be the showdown between childhood friends Spieth and Thomas, currently at No. 1 and No. 33, respectively, in the world rankings. Members of the vaunted high school class of 2011, the two have some match play history together – in 2012, Spieth beat Thomas during the NCAA Finals, helping to secure the national title for Texas.

This will also be Spieth’s final start before his title defense at the Masters. While his recent play has been by no means poor, he hasn’t notched a top 10 on the PGA Tour since his win at Kapalua back in January. A good performance here would give him some more momentum as he makes his final preparations for Augusta National.

We can’t forget about the other players in the group. Dubuisson was the runner-up at the 2014 Match Play, finishing second to Jason Day. He’s an enigmatic player, so you never know what he’s going to bring to the table, but the match play chops he’s demonstrated over the years can’t be ignored.

Donaldson has been fighting through a slump recently, but he made the winning putt for Team Europe at the 2014 Ryder Cup, so he knows a thing or two about playing a match under pressure. Don’t sleep on any of these four.

Next: Group 2