European Tour: Paul Lawrie Match Play Preview

The European Tour’s Paul Lawrie Match Play will feature a single-elimination bracket of 64 players, similar to the old WGC-Match Play format.

With the major championship season already over at the beginning of August, golf fans will need to find ways to divert their attention until the Masters rolls around again in eight long months. But that’s not to say that there aren’t some cool events still on the docket — the Olympics, FedEx Cup playoffs and Ryder Cup still await, and this week marks the return of a fan favorite format on the European Tour.

The Aberdeen Asset Management Paul Lawrie Match Play (PLMP) is in its second year, and while it lacks star power, it features the 64-player, March Madness-style bracket that the WGC-Dell Match Play abandoned in favor of a pool play/bracket format. The PLMP isn’t in a great spot on the schedule and doesn’t attract the same caliber of field as the now-obsolete Volvo World Match Play once did, but give the event some credit for capitalizing on a fun format that we rarely get to see in the professional ranks.

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The event will be held on a course in Lawrie’s home country: Archerfield Links in East Lothian, Scotland. The course appears to possess a lot of typical links traits, but the whispering pines that line some of the fairways give it a unique look.

As opposed to seeding the players, all matches were determined through a random draw. Here are some of the best matchups to look out for in round one:

Matthew Fitzpatrick vs. Thomas Bjorn

— Fitzpatrick is the second-highest ranked player in the field at No. 46, and as the winner of the 2013 U.S. Amateur, he’s seen some match play success.

The 21-year-old also became one of the youngest European Tour winners in history last year at the British Masters. The young gun will take on a wily vet in Bjorn, who hasn’t been playing well of late. However, the Dane has a total of 15 European Tour wins and has resurrected his career in the past. And who knows? Maybe in two years, they could form a player-captain duo at the 2018 Ryder Cup.

• Alex Noren vs. Scott Jamieson – Don’t look now, but Noren is a top 50 player in the world and has quietly assembled one of the better seasons of anyone on the European Tour. The Swede will go for the Aberdeen Asset Management sweep after winning last month’s AAM Scottish Open, which featured a stellar field in advance of The Open Championship. His opponent has yet to finish in the top 20 in 2016, but Jamieson will have the local crowd behind him. The Scot also won his first round matchup in 2015.
• Chris Wood vs. Brett Rumford – Wood enters this week as the top-ranked player in the world at No. 24 and appears to be a lock to be for the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine. The Englishman will use this week as a match play tuneup, starting with a match against five-time European Tour winner Brett Rumford. The Australian carries six consecutive missed cuts into this event, but he is known to have a strong short game. He can also draw from past match play success — he knocked Jamie Donaldson out of the 2013 Volvo.

A full schedule of the pairings and a bracket can be found here.

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Who’s your pick to take the Paul Lawrie Match Play? Let us know in the comments, and keep it here at Pro Golf Now for more updates from the European Tour.