This week, the PGA Tour moved to Austin Country Club in Texas to open the only hole game in the World Golf Championships, the Dell Tech Hole Game.
64 top players will be pitted against each other over a five-day tournament. Justin Thomas and Daniel Berg, who have been in good form recently; Billy Hoscher (defending champions), Scotty Schaeffler (second last year); and Joan Ram, Colin Morikawa and Victor Hoveland, who are in the top three in the world, will compete for the top spot in the variable competition.
The total prize money for this tournament is $12 million, and the winner will earn $2.1 million and 550 FedEx Cup points.
Chinese player Li Haotong will participate in the Corrales Punta Cana Championship, held concurrently at the Corrales Punta Cana Resort Club in the Dominican Republic. The tournament will have a total prize fund of $3.7 million, with the winner earning $666,000 and 300 FedEx Cup points.
(2022 World Golf Championships - Dell Technologies Pit Race Preview)
Detailed explanation of the format: 64 good hands meet each other, and the narrow road meets the brave to win!
(Group Stage Round Robin Stage Group Table: Group 1 - Group 8)
This week's World Golf Championships- Dell Technologies Hole Match is very special, with 64 of the world's top players "catching and fighting" to stage a rare hole matchup. They were divided into 16 groups of four players each, one of whom was one of the top 16 "seeded players" of the week (sorted by world ranking, the leftmost one in each group in the chart), and the remaining three players were randomly placed into each group.
The tournament lasts for five days, with the first three days being a group round robin: players will take turns "heads-ups" with the other three players in the same group. The last two days are the knockout stage: the 16 players who have "qualified" from the group continue to fight each other, playing a single knockout match (quarterfinals - finals - deciding the third place - championship) until the final champion is decided.
(Group Stage Round Robin Stage Group Table: Group 9 - Group 16)
The points rules for the group round robin stage are as follows: 1 point for winning, 0.5 points for tie, and 0 points for loss. The player with the highest number of points in each group will successfully "qualify". (If there is a tie in points after the group round robin, a sudden death extension will be held)
(Defending champion swing: Billy Hoschel)
In last year's tournament, after several rounds of fighting, it was Billy Hoscher and Scotty Schaeffler who reached the championship. Horschel won 2 holes and 1 hole left, defeating Schaeffler to win his sixth PGA Tour title.
Prior to this, Hoshel participated in the Dell Technologies Competition four times and did not "qualify" from the group. Last year, also since the introduction of the group round robin in 2015, for the first time, the final four were not the top 16 "seeded players". These results all show the dramatic charm of Dell Technologies' pit race.
Favorite player to win the championship
1. Justin Thomas
(JT at last week's game)
JT finished T3 in last week's tournament, his fifth top 5 finish in the last seven months. He is at the top of the PGA Tour on a number of stats, with "Bogey Avoidance Rate" and "Par Four Scoring" topped the list. The performance of these two stats was crucial in this week's match-up match.
2. Scotty Schaeffler
(Schaeffler in this week's practice round)
Schaeffler finished second on his first appearance last year, refreshing the stereotype that "the debut players of the hole game are not performing well". Schaeffler, who has a career-best year, has won two games this season and has a chance to succeed this week in "revenge" to claim his third PGA Tour win.
3. Dustin Johnson
(DJ in the game)
DJ has fallen out of the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time in seven years (currently ranked eleventh), but he is still the biggest hit of the week, because he has proven his dominance in the hole games many times. The 2017 champion has won all five games in the 2021 Ryder Cup.
In the Players Tournament, DJ shot a 63 (-9) in the final round, equalling the tournament record of 18 holes, his most recent performance.
A stadium built for a hole-to-hole match
Austin Country Club Course, 7108 yards, par 71
(Aerial photography stadium view)
"I love playing hole matches, we didn't get a chance to play a 1v1 matchup," said Joan Ram, the world number one and the number one seed of the week, "I love this stadium, it's built for hole matchups." ”
Texas local pride, this week's No. 11 "seeded" Jordan Spieth said: "It's exciting to be back at Austin Country Club. The course is interesting, each hole has a different way of playing, and it is very suitable for a match-hole match. ”
Biggest win in tournament history: 9 holes left, Tiger Woods wins Steven Emmes (1st round 2006)
The most anxious single-game showdown in the history of the tournament: 26 holes, McVille beat Lohan Roberts (first round 2003) and Scott Wiplank against Lee Westwood (first round 2006)
Focus group first round departure time
March 23-24 Beijing time
Group 3:
23:26 Victor Hovland vs Sepp Straka 23:37 Will Saratoris vs Cameron Tringali
Group 2:
00:54 Colin Morikawa vs Robert McIntyre 01:05 Jenson Kokrac vs Sergio Garcia
Group 1:
03:50 Joan Ram vs Sebastian Mullos 04:01 Patrick Red vs Cameron Young
Li Haotong competed in the Corrales Punta Cana Championship
Chinese player Li Haotong joined the lineup of the Colares Punta Cana Championship at the same time with a sponsor wild card, so take a look at his outlook for the week:
(Li Haotong was interviewed before the game)
The Golf Channel will be streaming the two matches of the week live for you, so tune in!