WGC-Dell Match Play: Maverick McNealy not home free, just going home
By Bill Felber
If the WGC-Dell Match Play was a standard medal play event, Maverick McNealy would be nearly home free. Instead, he’s just going home.
McNealy is the poster child for the fundamental difference between the two forms of golf.
In his first match Wednesday against Joaquin Niemann in Group 15, McNealy effectively shot a 63 – the day’s best round – and won easily. On Thursday against veteran Kevin Na, he actually out-scored Na 69-70 but emerged with a mere draw.
In Friday’s third round at the WGC-Dell Match Play, McNealy, the last player in the field, effectively shot 64 in defeating Russell Henley. Had this been a medal play format, he would have completed the three rounds at around 196, the best score of any of the entrants and 10 full strokes ahead of Na and Henley.
McNealy would be leading the WGC-Dell Match Play under the traditional Medal Play format
But Na, considered a match play master, rallied to edge out Niemann in their Friday match at the WGC-Dell Match Play, creating a playoff scenario with McNealy. Na won that playoff when McNealy’s drive behind a tree failed to position him to match Na’s birdie.
So Na advanced to Saturday’s round of 16, where he was to meet Will Zalatoris, winner of Group 3. McNealy, meanwhile, packed his bags.
Among the week’s best ball-strikers, McNealy was not alone. Seven of the week’s dozen best players based on medal play format failed to advance to the bracket stage.
Here’s how the three-round standings at the WGC-Dell Match Play probably would have looked in a medal play format. Advancing players are asterisked.
Player 54-hole projection
1 Maverick McNealy 196
2 Scottie Scheffler* 197
3 Harold Varner 199
3 Si Woo Kim 199
5 Thomas Pieters 200
5 Kevin Kisner* 200
7 Jon Rahm* 201
8 Abraham Ancer* 202
8 Brooks Koepka* 202
10 Jason Kokrak 203
10 Sepp Straka 203
10 Patrick Reed 203
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For sheer inequity, McNealy’s match play fate was the most striking. But he was hardly alone in falling to the format’s vagaries. Consider Straka, pitted against Will Zalatoris, Viktor Hovland, and Cameron Tringale in Group 3.
On Wednesday, Straka played at an even-par 71 pace but lost when Hovland won two of the final three holes. His 4 & 2 Thursday victory over Zalatoris was brilliant; Straka was on a 65 pace when he closed out the match.
On Friday, Straka was on a 67 pace but got run over by Tringale, who made nine birdies in his 15 holes. That left Straka at 1-2 for the group; Zalatoris defeated Hovland in a playoff after they both came in at 2-1.
But based on projected medal play, Straka deserved to win the group. His projected three-round score was 203, one better than Hovland, two better than Tringale, and five better than Zalatoris, the group victor.
Within the 16 groups, McNealy and Straka were only two of seven players eliminated Friday despite accumulating the best medal play records. Here’s a table of all seven.
Group Winner Medal leader
2 Morikawa Kokrak
3 Zalatoris Straka
7 Kanaya Finau
12 Horschel Pieters
13 Hatton Kim
14 Na McNealy
16 Koepka Varner
The Tour’s pod system – 16 groups of four in a round-robin, created its own inequities. Some groups of four simply turned out to be tougher than others to emerge from. In fact, the difference between the best scoring group – based on their projected medal play average – and the worst scoring amounted to a striking seven and one-half strokes.
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The best? That was Group 16, consisting of Brooks Koepka, Harold Varner III, Erik Van Rooyen, and Shane Lowry. At medal play, they estimated to have averaged just 204.5, 8.5 strokes below Austin Country Club’s par.
The worst at the WGC-Dell Match Play? That was the illustrious Group 11 consisting of four major champions. Together, Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley, Jordan Spieth, and Justin Rose staged a three-day pillow fight, averaging 212.0 strokes in their matches before Scott was declared the victor.