Bracket madness catches up with the PGA Tour this week, as golf’s best meet up for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas. 

This is one of the most unique golf daily fantasy sports and betting weekends all year, with 64 players going at it in round-robin pool format followed by single-elimination match play to crown a champion at Austin Country Club. 

The field is separated by 16 groups of four players, who face off in three round robin matches Wednesday-Friday to determine the winner of the group. Those 16 players then advance to single-elimination in a traditional bracket format, with round of 16 and quarterfinal matches Saturday ahead of the semifinals and championship match on Sunday. 

The DFS format is slightly different as well, with players gaining points for holes they win and dropping points for holes they lose, along with bonus points for winning matches. It’s good to rely on traditional measurements like Strokes Gained and course history, but keep in mind that match play is a completely different challenge than stroke play and upsets happen all the time. 

The Tour also recently announced the WGC Match Play won’t be on the calendar next year, meaning this is the last time we’ll get to enjoy a bracket-style match play event on Tour for the foreseeable future. Let’s make it worthwhile. 

Last week: Taylor Moore stood tall down the stretch to hold off a number of contenders and capture his first-ever PGA Tour win at the Valspar Championship. Moore, priced at $8,300 and included in 8.12% of DraftKings' $1 million Pitch & Putt, shot 10-under 274 for the week and finished one shot ahead of Adam Schenk ($7,100/3.26%). Jordan Spieth ($10,600/20.12%) missed several good birdie looks down the stretch and made bogey on No. 18 when a birdie would have got him into a playoff. 

2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

Course Location: Austin, Texas

Austin Country Club: 7,108 yards, Par 71. Greens: Bermuda

Past Winners

• 2022 – Scottie Scheffler
• 2021 – Billy Horschel
• 2020 – Cancelled
• 2019 – Kevin Kisner
• 2018 – Bubba Watson
• 2017 – Dustin Johnson
• 2016 – Jason Day
• 2015 – Rory McIlroy
• 2014 – Jason Day
• 2013 – Matt Kuchar

2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Picks By Price

11K-9.5K Range: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

Patrick Cantlay, $10,700: Cantlay is one of our favorite top-seeds for a few reasons – most notably, his path looks easier than Scottie Scheffler’s or Jon Rahm’s based on how everyone is playing at the moment. He’s never made it out of group play in this event, but he’s had some bad luck with matchups and he’s 9-4-2 overall in singles match play including the Ryder and President’s Cups. We don’t see Brian Harman, K.H. Lee or Nick Taylor taking him out.

Rory McIlroy, $10,500: We think this is an excellent draw for McIlroy. He’s a beast in singles with a 34-18-4 lifetime record, matched up with guys who haven’t shown any kind of affinity for the format. Keegan Bradley has played well this year, but he’s now gone 17 straight singles matches without a victory and his lifetime record is 1-12-6. McIlroy will be fully dialed in amid Masters prep, and he’ll be especially motivated to get out of the group stage after a disappointing missed cut at the Players earlier this month.

9.5K-8K Range: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

Sungjae Im, $9,400: Im improved to 4-4 in singles match play with a 1-up victory over Cameron Young in the 2022 President’s Cup. That’s a lot of experience for a 24-year-old, and he’s definitely trending in the right direction with three top 10s in his last six starts. Tommy Fleetwood is always dangerous in match play, but we wonder where his head will be at after falling short in contention Sunday at the Valspar. We like Im to emerge from Group No. 16 and potentially set up a Round of 16 matchup with Scottie Scheffler if he’s able to get it done in Group No. 1. 

Tyrrell Hatton, $9,000: We like Hatton at this price given who he’s matched up with. Hatton has a ton of match play experience and swept his group stage last year in Austin before getting bounced by Seamus Power. We’d be surprised if he didn’t get back to the Round of 16 – Russell Henley has lost or halved six of his last seven matches here and Lucas Herbert and Ben Griffin aren’t serious threats.

8K-7K Range: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

Corey Conners, $7,900: Conners has been an absolute menace at Austin Country Club, winning six of his last seven matches – including a 3 and 1 victory over Dustin Johnson in the 2022 final consolation match. The game isn’t as sharp as it was earlier this year, but Conners has always enjoyed this format and top-seeded Cameron Young is just 1-3 all-time in singles. Conners is seeded third in the group, but we like him to emerge and take it to single elimination for a second straight season.

Seamus Power, $7,200: Power played this event for the first time in 2022 and took to it immediately, scoring impressive wins over Sungjae Im and Patrick Cantlay to get out of the group stage. He ultimately fell to Scheffler in the quarterfinals, but he’s in even better form now having racked off eight consecutive top-25s and a win earlier this season. This is one of the more evenly-matched groups out there, and the price is right for the 36-year-old Irishman. 

7K and Below: WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play

Harris English, $6,900: All you’re looking for at this price range is potential – the most likely players to pull off the unlikeliest upsets. Harris fits the bill for us. He’s 5-5 all-time in singles play and the putter can get ridiculously hot at times in an event where the flat stick can carry a player through the week. He was T-2 at the Arnold Palmer earlier this month and also made a ton of putts during a T-12 finish at the Genesis. Will Zalatoris is always a tough out, but English is the superior putter and could definitely make some noise as the underdog this week. 

Adrian Meronk, $6,400: Meronk has never played this event, and he got a pretty cushy group assignment for his debut. Tony Finau is a top-10 machine but has never been a dominant match play guy at 7-7-2 lifetime in singles. Christian Bezuidenhout is playing well lately but he’s 0-5-1 lifetime at this event. Kurt Kitayama has never played here. Meronk has been playing his tail off this season and there’s nobody in this group that should scare him. At this price, we definitely like Meronk in the lineup.  

2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Date & TV

When: Wednesday-Sunday, March 22-26

Where: Austin Country Club, Austin, Texas

TV: Golf Channel, NBC