WGC-Dell Match Play Odds, TV Schedule, Tee Times: The PGA Tour's Attempt at March Madness

This week, the PGA Tour takes a break from stroke play and heads to Austin Country Club for the WGC-Dell Match Play.

Obviously, with this being a WGC event, the top players in the world are here. Dustin Johnson is back to defend his title, and Rory McIlroy is in fresh off of his first win in 18 months last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Also in the field are Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, and Phil Mickelson.

The purse is a smooth $10 million with the winner taking home $1.7.

TV Schedule

Format

There are 16 pods made up of four golfers. Each pod contains an “A” player (1-16), “B” player (17-32), “C” player (33-48), and “D” player (49-64). The “A” players were each given a pod and the other players were randomly drawn using a ping-pong machine.

The first players will each play a round robin against the other three competitors. After the winner of each group has emerged, they will move on to play a single elimination-bracket that will take place over four rounds. The Sweet 16 and quarterfinals rounds will be played on Saturday and the semifinals and final rounds will take place on Sunday.

Tee Times

Wednesday Tee Times

Group 1

12:48 p.m. — Dustin Johnson (1) vs. Bernd Wiesberger (52)
12:59 p.m. — Kevin Kisner (32) vs. Adam Hadwin (38)

Group 2

9:52 a.m. — Justin Thomas (2) vs. Luke List (60)
10:03 a.m. — Francesco Molinari (21) vs. Patton Kizzire (48)

Group 3

2:16 p.m. — Jon Rahm (3) vs. Keegan Bradley (63)
2:27 p.m. — Kiradech Aphibarnrat (28) vs. Chez Reavie (43)

Group 4

11:20 a.m. — Jordan Spieth (4) vs. Charl Schwartzel (49)
11:31 a.m. — Patrick Reed (19) vs. HaoTong Li (34)

Group 5

10:36 a.m. — Hideki Matsuyama (5) vs. Yusaku Miyazato (53)
10:47 a.m. — Patrick Cantlay (30) vs. Cameron Smith (46)

Group 6

1:32 p.m. — Rory McIlroy (6) vs. Peter Uihlein (57)
1:43 p.m. — Brian Harman (18) vs. Jhonattan Vegas (44)

Group 7

3:00 p.m. — Sergio Garcia (7) vs. Shubhankar Sharma (62)
3:11 p.m. — Xander Schauffele (20) vs. Dylan Frittelli (41)

Group 8

12:04 p.m. — Jason Day (8) vs. James Hahn (56)
12:15 p.m. — Louis Oosthuizen (25) vs. Jason Dufner (42)

Group 9

11:42 a.m. — Tommy Fleetwood (9) vs. Ian Poulter (58)
11:53 a.m. — Daniel Berger (26) vs. Kevin Chappell (33)

Group 10

2:38 p.m. — Paul Casey (10) vs. Russell Henley (51)
2:49 p.m. — Matthew Fitzpatrick (31) vs. Kyle Stanley (45)

Group 11

1:10 p.m. — Marc Leishman (11) vs. Julian Suri (64)
1:21 p.m. — Branden Grace (23) vs. Bubba Watson (35)

Group 12

10:14 a.m. — Tyrrell Hatton (12) vs. Alexander Levy (55)
10:25 a.m. — Charley Hoffman (22) vs. Brendan Steele (36)

Group 13

10:58 a.m. — Alex Noren (13) vs. Kevin Na (61)
11:09 a.m. — Tony Finau (29) vs. Thomas Pieters (39)

Group 14

1:54 p.m. — Phil Mickelson (14) vs. Charles Howell III (59)
2:05 p.m. — Rafa Cabrera Bello (17) vs. Satoshi Kodaira (40)

Group 15

9:30 a.m. — Pat Perez (15) vs. Si Woo Kim (50)
9:41 a.m. — Gary Woodland (24) vs. Webb Simpson (37)

Group 16

12:26 p.m. — Matt Kuchar (16) vs. Zach Johnson (54)
12:37 p.m. — Ross Fisher (27) vs. Yuta Ikeda (47)

My Pick

Dustin Johnson is the defending champion, but he’ll likely end up facing someone who has won more recently than he has. Johnson already has a win this season at the Tournament of Champions in January, but I’m going to pick someone who appears to have turned a huge corner; Rory McIlroy.

McIlroy found something with his putter last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and during the final round it appeared like he couldn’t miss. I don’t expect that to change this week in Austin. He’s got his mojo back after not winning in 18 months, which is staggering, and is rounding into form at just the right time ahead of the Masters.