Big names heading home early from WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

The round robin portion of the WGC-Match Play was a disaster for golf’s biggest names

Chalk it up to the unpredictability of match play, the worldwide parity at golf’s highest level or simply good players having a bad few days, but this week at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play was no time to be a favorite.

World No. 2 Justin Thomas lost his first two matches and was eliminated before he even teed off in his final match Friday morning. Rory McIlroy suffered a shocking 6&5 defeat in his first match on Wednesday. Dustin Johnson, the top-ranked player in the field, was involved in a controversy involving a conceded putt in his third match and imploded; he, too, is heading home.

After 96 matches played in 16 groups over the last three days, just one top-10 player, Jon Rahm, will stick around to play the weekend. More players ranked 60th or worse (three) won their group than players ranked in the top-20 (one). The previous low for top-20 players advancing was five in 2015; Rahm was the only one to win his group this week.

The top-10 players went a combined 10-12-8 in their matches. The bottom-10 players, meanwhile, went 12-12-6. The only player to go 3-0 in round-robin play was 65th seed Ian Poulter, who was the one to hand McIlroy that loss in the first match.

Bryson DeChambeau, coming off a win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a third-place finish at the Players Championship, lost to unknown Frenchman Antoine Rozner in his first match. Rozner, who had never played a PGA Tour event before, only made the field after holing a 60-foot putt to win in Qatar two weeks ago, a victory that improved his ranking from 94th to 63rd.

The lack of star power advancing doesn’t mean there wasn’t some drama at Austin Country Club. Sergio Garcia finished off Ryder Cup teammate Lee Westwood with a walk-off hole-in-one on the fourth playoff hole. Robert MacIntyre finished ahead of Johnson in Group 1 only after hitting his tee shot on the par-four 18th hole to two-feet for a tap-in eagle.

In the top half of the bracket, a player ranked 49th or lower is guaranteed to at least make the semifinals. In the bottom half, meanwhile, 21-seed Tommy Fleetwood is the top-ranked player.

Match play is imperfect. A player can shoot the equivalent of 65 and lose to a player who shot 64. You can win a hole with a bogey or lose it with a birdie. It’s unpredictable and, coming around just once a year, a lot of fun. As Rozner said after shocking DeChambeau, there is no such thing as an upset in this format.

“I think in match play everyone is on the same level, so no, I don’t think it’s an upset,” he said. “I think it’s just a round of golf. It doesn’t matter who you are. In one round you can beat anyone. No, I don’t there there is any upset in there.”

Sixteen players, featuring many no one would’ve predicted at the start of the week, have a tee time for the weekend. For the other 48, including most of the biggest names in the sport, their eyes are now on the Masters.