How does the World Golf Championship – Dell Technologies Match Play work?

The World Golf Championship – Dell Technologies Match Play pits the world’s best golfers against each other this week in Austin, Texas on the Austin Country Club course. This tournament is played in a match play format and not, as is so often the case, in counting play. We explain the special play mode this week and what the group and knockout stages are all about.

The match play format

Counting match play is probably the best known format in golf. The player’s strokes are added up over the various rounds and the player with the fewest strokes wins the tournament. In the match play format, on the other hand, there is a direct duel with the opponent and it is not about strokes, but about courses won. Two players compete against each other and play an 18-hole round. Each individual hole is scored separately: The player who needs fewer strokes for a hole wins it. The player who has won more holes after 18 holes wins the duel. If both players need the same number of strokes on a hole, it is “split” and ends in a draw. It therefore takes at least 9.5 holes won to win a match.

WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play: The Mode

The field of participants will be divided into 16 groups for the tournament. The 64 qualifiers will be placed in a seeded list according to their ranking in the March 21 world rankings. The field is strong, with 64 of the world’s 69 best players set to compete. Accordingly, Jon Rahm is seeded number 1. Based on the order of the seedings, four pools with 16 players each will be divided. The players from pool A (number 1-16) form the group heads of the respective groups. They have been drawn one player from each of the other pools B,C and D, so that 16 groups of four will start the tournament with one player from each pool. The group winners will advance to the knockout stage, where the winner will be determined from the round of 16 on Saturday to the final on Sunday.

The tournament schedule

Due to the format with many matches, the World Golf Championship-Dell Match Play starts already on Wednesday. On the first three days, players in all groups will play one 18-hole round against each other, so that three duels will be played in each group. The winner of a round gets one point, if a pairing ends in a draw, both players get half a point. Whoever can collect the most points will move on to the knockout stage. If several players are tied for the lead in a group on Friday, a playoff scenario will be played from hole to hole after the group phase until one player prevails.

The knockout duels will then be played over the weekend until a winner is determined. If the two opponents are tied after 18 holes in a match in the round of 16, on Saturday morning, the playoff will continue. The winners will then determine the semi-finalists in the quarter-finals on Saturday afternoon, if necessary in a decider mode.

On the final day, the semifinals will be held in the morning, and the winners of the semifinals will decide the World Golf Champions-Dell Technologies Match Plays title among themselves in the afternoon. The losers of the semifinals will only have to play for third place.