Branden Grace will face Hideki Matsuyama in his first group stage clash as the WGC-Dell Tech Match Play gets under way on Wednesday at Austin Country Club in Texas.
The Presidents Cup teammates will face each other in Group 1 as they look to keep their hopes alive of progressing to an all-important clash against world No 1, Dustin Johnson, later in the week.
Match play can produce the spectrum of golf drama, but the pair know that an early loss makes advancing from the group an almost impossible task; just 8 players have lost in the first match and gone on to top their group.
Grace will be pleased to note the recent trend of the higher-ranked player winning (Matsuyama is 24 to Grace’s 40) dipped to under 50% for the first time in three years in last year’s edition.
The South African is looking for an improved showing in a format where he has achieved some success. He has only progressed into the knockout rounds once (2016).
Grace faces Dustin Johnson on Thursday and then Chez Reavie on Friday.
Justin Harding is in Group 4 alongside Rory McIlroy, Luke List and Matt Fitzpatrick. The latter is Harding’s first opponent, and despite not having a good record here (yet to advance from the groups), he does boast Ryder Cup experience and a recent second place finish at Bay Hill.
Thursday sees Harding face McIlroy with a final group encounter on Friday against American List.
Louis Oosthuizen starts ‘gently’ against Kyle Stanley and will begin his week full of confidence after an excellent short game exhibition en route to coming up a shot short at the Valspar Championship.
The top-ranked South African is second in the group to Tommy Fleetwood, but that battle must wait until Friday for what promises to be the group decider.
Oosthuizen was second here to Jason Day back in 2016, and has two other last 8 credits to his name. Byeong-Hun An completes this group (11).
Format and schedule:
16 groups of four players contest round-robin matches Wednesday to Friday
16 group winners contest straight knockouts over the weekend
Wednesday: Pool Play Round 1
Thursday: Pool Play Round 2
Friday: Pool Play Round 3
Saturday: Round of 16 followed by Quarter-finals
Sunday: Semi-finals, Championship match, Consolation match
