2010 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship Preview


by Erik Planer
Erik Planer
February 16th, 2010 Share/Bookmark Beat the Expert
(3 Comments)


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Fantasy Golf Picks

I’m giving myself points for picking winners.  Hopefully my picks can help you win your fantasy golf league this season.  My goal is to get to 111 points for the season, or the equivlant of picking a Top 3 finisher or better each week, based on the point scale below:

Winner = 10 points

2nd Place = 5 points

3rd Place = 3 points

Top 10 = 1 point

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Total:  22 Points

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Weekly Average:  3.67 Points

Think you can pick better?  Leave a comment with your 3 picks for the 2010 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.  If you Beat The Expert in any week you will win a FREE 2010 Rotoff Golf Draft Kit (a $9.99 value) with one possible Grand Prize winner at the end of the FedEx Cup season.  See here for official BTE rules.

Ed gets the job done for a second time this year with 11 total points.  He got not only the winner in Dustin Johnson but also gets a point for Phil’s first Top 10 of 2010.  It also moves him into 2nd place overall on the BTE Leaderboard, just two points shy of our fearless leader McClung.  Nice work Ed. 

Beat the Expert Leaderboard

Rank Name Weeks Weekly Win Win (x10) 2nd (x5) 3rd (x3) T10 (x1) Points
1 Brad 24 2 6 3 1 8 86
2 E. McClung 26 2 4 4 3 10 79
3 C. Giles 21 3 4 2 - 14 64
4 E. Hamilton 22 2 4 - 2 13 59
5 J. Book 26 4 3 1 2 11 52
6 C. Cameron 21 1 3 1 2 8 49
7 E. Planer 29 3 1 4 1 13 46
8 J. Littlefield 13   1 1 - 8 23
9 Shane 7   1 1 - 5 20
10 Dr Peerless 4   1 - - 2 12
11 Bryan 1   1 - - - 10
11 T. Whitehead 1   1 - - - 10
13 R. Slaughter 3   - - - 3 3
14 C. Garner 1 1 - - - 1 1
15 Dutch 1   - - - - 0

Last Week:

It was a great week for me in getting my first winning pick of the year in Dustin Johnson.  Garcia was on his way to a Top 10 before a +5 final round score that dropped him to T52.  Luke Donald only broke 60 once last week but still managed a T16 finish.  At least no one missed the cut.

This week:

Changing it up just a bit this week with the Match Play.  Instead of three picks I would like everyone to give their bracket winners, though the same point scale will apply.

For the first time in the history of this event there will be no Tiger or Phil.  While some may argue that it will be boring (this event is usually always boring after the first few rounds) it will be a chance for some of the young guns to shine.  This will be our first time in 2010 seeing Villegas, McIlroy and Anthony Kim (seriously can anyone vouch for him really playing the Northern Trust?).  Match Play is pretty much like the NCAA tournament, the first few rounds are exciting and the last rounds rarely live up to the hype.  I for one think the 36 hole championship round is 18 holes to long.  Rarely does the championship match have any real drama.  But I digress.

There are some great 1st round pairings this year.  Vijay vs. Clark.  Garcia vs. Toms.  Villegas vs. DJ.  Always a hard tournament to predict, it really comes down to who is hot and putting well.  It’s definately a grind and expect to see some early round upsets this year  (I’ll call it now, Toms over Garcia).  Having just filled out my Rotoff Golf Match Play Challenge bracket I’m ready to announce this year’s bracket winners.

1. Steve Stricker (Bobby Jones Bracket)

Now #2 in the world there’s not much left for Stricker to accomplish in the golf world except a Major title.  Winning here would be a good start towards that goal.  Over the last seven years, six of the Match Play winners have also got a Major.  It’s hard to argue that anyone outside of DJ is playing better then Stricker right now and I expect that to continue this week.  Being a #1 seed doesn’t hurt either.

 2. Rory McIlroy (Ben Hogan Bracket)

Rory could have an easy go in the first few rounds before having to meet Donald or Allenby in the 3rd round.  In just two events this year on the European Tour, McIlroy has a 3rd place and T6 finish.  If he can continue that success in the states it could be a great year for the youngster from across the pond.

3. Geoff Ogilvy (Gary Player Bracket)

The last time we saw Mr. Ogilvy he was victorious in Hawaii at the season opening SBS Championship.  Geoff has become an elite golfer who has the luxary of picking and choosing his PGA Tour schedule.  It cannot be overlooked that he has won this event twice and has a good track record (3 career wins) in his home state of AZ.  The only real hurdle in his way could be the winner of the Villegas/DJ matchup in the 2nd round.

4. Zach Johnson (Sam Snead Bracket)

ZJ hasn’t played since the Sony so rust could be a factor.  As the #6 seed he could have a somewhat easy draw as no one outside of Paul Casey really scare me in his possible early round matches.  Zach made a deep run (albeit on a different course) in 2006, winning the consolation match for a 3rd place finish.  If he can continue his great short game play (6th in GIR) he should make a deep run.


If you would like to play in the Rotoff Golf Match Play Challenge please get your brackets in before Wednesday at 8:00 am pst.  Good luck.

 Follow the Match Play scoring all week long at the link below:

http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboards/current/r470/index.html


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Leave your reply below with your three golfers for the week. If you score more points then our Fantasy Golf expert based on the point scale in this article you win a free 2010 Rotoff Golf Draft Kit valued at $9.99. For official Beat the Expert rules click here.




3 Responses to “2010 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship Preview”

  1. Eric McClung Says:

    Bobby Jones – Steve Stricker
    Sam Snead – Zach Johnson
    Ben Hogan – Tim Clark
    Gary Player – Ryan Moore

  2. Sandcrabs Says:

    My recent comments generally have shown my immense ignorance in picking winners, so without further fanfare my predictions for the bracket winners:

    Steve Stricker
    Chad Campbell
    Jim Furyk
    Dustin Johnson

  3. Craig Giles Says:

    Angel Cabrera
    Rory McIlroy
    Geoff Ogilvy
    Sean O’Hair

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