World Golf Championship - Dell Match Play

The Austin Country Club in Texas hosts the World Golf Championship Dell Match Play for the top 64 golfers in the world this week. The par 71 7,108-yard layout is not necessary long and suits the golfer who is high on approach and scores birdies or better. The unique Match Play format is arranged in a bracket style event consisting of 16 groups of 4 golfers. Each golfer plays each other in a round robin format and the winner of that group advances into the elimination style head-to-head. The knock-out continues until we have a winner on a Sunday.

Note the event starts one day earlier on a Wednesday in the United States. So for in Australia, lock is at 1:20am AEDT Thursday morning.

DraftKings have posted a special “Match-play” format that takes on new scoring.

DraftKings golf scoring

This looks like a fun way for DraftKings to play this event and for a $5 entry you can have a shot at the $400,000 Guaranteed Match Play contest. With this unique format, we need to think about a bit of strategy so that our line-ups go deep into the tournament.

  • Avoid picking golfers in the same initial group. So, for example Group 1 has Dustin Johnson, Hideki Matsuyama, Branden Grace, Chez Reavie. No point rostering Johnson and Grace together as only 1 or potentially none of these golfers will continue after 3 rounds.
  • Now if we get 6 golfers through to the elimination, we need to avoid potential match-up in the knockout format. So, the winner of group 1 plays the winner of group 16. Group 2 plays Group 15 and so on. Once we get to the final 8 and you still have golfers alive then enjoy the sweat!
  • Play 3 guys each from 2 quadrants or 2 guys each from 3 quadrants. Hopefully you get 1 or 2 into that final 4!
  • Confused? You can see the bracket format here - https://fantasybracket.pgatour.com/#/picks/mine
  • Remember this a unique format, and these are the best golfers in the world!

With this in mind let’s have a look who to target in the Dell Match Play:

Brooks Koepka ($10,300) in group 3 (so number 3 seed for the event). If Koepka can get through Noren, Li and Lewis which I think is a soft group, then he could have a matchup with group 14 which has Finau, Poulter, Kisner and Mitchell (I would like to describe that group as the group of “death”). Koepka won’t have to play McIlroy or Johnson until the final if Koepka gets that far. My tip for the winner of whole event this weekend.

Matt Kuchar ($8,100) in group 8. I can see Kuchar who is currently ranked 4th in ball striking beating the favourite in Jon Rahm and progressing to take on Group 9 which is headlined by Xander Schauffele. If we get Dustin Johnson slipping up early, then a deep run can occur here.

Keegan Bradley ($7,200) in group. If we can get a result over Justin Thomas then we get value from Bradley’s salary. If he does get through then who knows he will face from a tough group 12 (Day, Mickelson, Stenson and Furyk) and be ready to pounce after the four mentioned have grinded out of the group.

Charles Howell III ($7,400) in group 10. We need a Paul Casey slip up he after his win at the Valspar and we are going to get Howell at a very low ownership. If we get Howell out of the group, then a weaker group 7 awaits which has Molinari as the headliner here.

My fade this week is Jason Day ($9,800) due to the fact he is an extremely tough group to get out of (Group 12). Up against Mickelson, Stenson and Furyk, I can see Day winning a match but not enough to get out of the group. With Day’s high salary it just a little bit too risky have Day in cash lineups but feel free to sprinkle in GPP lineups.

DFR Dragon's Picks

The Daily Fantasy Rankings "Dragon" has scoured the Australian sports betting markets and found some great value picks for these games. Check out his picks for the day below and click on the links to follow his betting plays!

Dragon's Picks Odds Sportsbook
Brooks Koepka – Winner $23 Bet now at BetEasy!
Charles Howell III – To reach quarter final $7.00 Bet now at Pointsbet!
Keegan Bradley – To win group 5 $4.00 Bet now at Sportsbet!
Matt Kuchar to win vs JB Holmes (1st match) $1.75 Bet now at Neds!

 

DraftKings Golf

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