With the Florida swing behind us, the PGA TOUR now relocates to Austin, Texas, for the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play. This tournament was added to the annual PGA TOUR schedule back in 2016 and has only been played at Austin Country Club (par 71, 7,108 yards, TifEagle Bermudagrass overseeded with Poa Trivialis), outside of in 2020, when the event was canceled due to the pandemic. A year ago, Billy Horschel took home the top prize.
The WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play brings a whole new game to the table. Instead of standard stroke play, this field of 64 players will be dispersed into 16 groups of four which are called “pods” and every golfer will play a round against each player in their pod, with the matches beginning Wednesday and concluding Friday. Once those rounds are completed, the golfer with the best record in terms of wins, losses and halves from each pod will advance to the round of 16. Then, these 16 players will compete in a head-to-head sudden death bracket-styled tournament, with the round of 16 and quarterfinals being held on Saturday and the semifinals and finals on Sunday. Similar to March Madness, each player has a seed based on their official world golf ranking, so analyzing the bracket and seeing which golfers have the easiest road to the finals is obviously a wise strategy. Last, but not least, we will be rostering the usual six golfers in our DFS lineups, but the scoring is completely different from a standard week of golf. Instead of players gaining and losing DKFP based on birdies, eagles, bogeys and finishing position, DFS scoring for the WGC-Dell is based on holes and matches won, halved and lost.
As for the venue, Austin CC is a classic Pete Dye-designed track. The course isn’t long by any means and the greens are small and difficult to find consistently. There are 110 bunkers on-site and water comes into play on seven of 18 holes. Since Austin CC became the host of the WGC-Dell back in 2016, we have seen short hitters like Kevin Kisner and bombers like Dustin Johnson both win this event, showing you any length of player can be targeted this week. We primarily need to be pursuing players in compelling form with their irons and also as par five scorers. As expected, the three par fives at Austin CC are by far the three easiest holes on the course, and racking up birdies on these three holes will be critical for success.
With this being a WGC event, this is a star-studded field, including 16 of the top-20 ranked players in the world. It is important to note that this is a five-day event that kicks off a day earlier than usual on Wednesday.
So, without further ado, below are three of my favorite value plays for the WGC-Dell that cost less than 7.5K on DraftKings.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA $750K Pitch + Putt [$200K to 1st] (Match Play)
Bubba Watson, $7,200
Watson has been competing on the weekend at 11 of his past 13 events, including six top-30s. More importantly, the left-handed bomber is a previous winner of this match play tournament, taking home the big check in 2018. Overall, Watson owns a career singles record of 11-5-5 at Austin CC and has proceeded to the round of 16 in three of his five attempts at the par 71.
The 43-year-old doesn’t have the easiest path this season, facing Abraham Ancer, Webb Simpson and Brian Harman in his pod, but Watson still has the potential to come out of this group and simply can’t be ignored at this soft price tag. On DraftKings Sportsbook, Watson carries +250 odds to advance to the Round of 16, which is tied with Tom Hoge (below) for the best odds of all the golfers priced under $7.5K this week.
Tom Hoge, $6,800
Even with no match play experience, Hoge shares the same odds as Watson to proceed to the Round of 16 on DraftKings Sportsbook, thanks to his incredible form and weak competition. The 32-year-old is in the midst of the best season of his career, making 12/16 cuts, with six top-25 finishes. Most notably, Hoge finished runner-up at The American Express in January and then picked up the first PGA TOUR victory of his career at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February. For the season, Hoge impressively ranks seventh in SG APP and 12th in SGT2G.
As for his opening-round opponents, Hoge couldn’t have asked for a better draw. While he will have to face the defending champ in Horschel, the other two players in his pod are Thomas Pieters and Min Woo Lee, both of which come into this week with very uninspiring form. Pieters has missed two of his last three cuts and Woo has missed three in a row. Hoge could absolutely finish with the best record from this pod and is an easy choice at this low salary.
Ian Poulter, $6,600
Simply put, Poulter lives for the match play format. The English pro holds an incredible 47-19-5 singles record for his career, including a 9-3 record at Austin CC. Poulter has made it to the Round of 16 in two of his three starts at the Dye Design and heads back to south Texas as the maker of three consecutive cuts on the PGA TOUR. The 46-year-old gained at least two strokes with his irons in two of these three starts and finds himself in a pod against Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood and Matthew Fitzpatrick.
The latter has always struggled in match play, with a 10-13-1 career singles record and no Round of 16 appearances in five starts at Austin CC. As for Fleetwood, Poulter defeated him and came out of their pod at the 2018 edition of the WGC-Dell and is 1/4 in terms of making it the Round of 16. As a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR this season, Scheffler is the obvious favorite in this pod, but Poulter and his unmatched experience certainly could surprise and produce a better record over the long hitter. At only $6,600, taking a chance on Poulter for the upset makes all the sense in the world for this volatile tournament.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA $750K Pitch + Putt [$200K to 1st] (Match Play)
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is Hunta512) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
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