2022 WGC-Dell Match Play: Top 10 power rankings at Austin CC

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. That’s the case for Xander Schauffele, who’s finished in second place in his WGC-Dell Match Play group the last three times.

Last year, he went 1-0-2 and lost in a sudden-death playoff to Scottie Scheffler, the eventual tournament runner-up. Schauffele went 1-1-1 in 2019 and 2-1-0 in 2018. A 4-2-2 record overall shows he’s worthy of making the round of 16.

Not only that, but I see his personal best at Austin Country Club culminating in a run to the quarterfinals.

First things first, he has to get by in group 7 against No. 18 Tony Finau, No. 39 Lucas Herbert, and No. 56 Takumi Kanaya.

That’s about the best draw Schauffele could hope for. Finau’s 0-for-3 winning his pool in Austin and the other two are WGC-Dell Match Play tournament rookies.

Finau hasn’t recorded a top-five since his win last year at The Northern Trust. Herbert beat a weak field to hoist the trophy late in 2021 at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, but has also failed to finish top-five since.

Kanaya, 23, is a rising star from Japan, but he may be in over his head trying to beat an established presence in Schauffele. Kanaya has climbed the world rankings thanks to three Japan Tour wins, but he’s yet to record a top-10 on American soil.

Schauffele could very well go 3-0-0 to roll into his round of 16 match against one of my underdog picks, No. 45 Brian Harman.

Schauffele is 17th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained tee to green (1.067). He won’t be out of position often and puts pressure on opponents by the lack of mistakes.

But you can’t quantify Harman’s grit.

Harman will have had more work to do to get to this point, but I like his runs to the round of 16 in 2019 and quarterfinals in 2021 at the WGC-Dell Match Play to help push him one round further this time.