Tournament Preview: The 2013 WGC Accenture Match Play Championship

Photo by @pga_tour

This year, 64 of the world’s best 66 professional golfers will meet in a “March madness bracket” style match play golf tournament.  With 550 FedExCup points and $1.4 million on the line, this “match play” contest always has a real duel-like feel.  The two players sitting out this year are FedExCup champ and current points leader Brandt Snedeker, and Phil Mickelson who sits in a close 2^nd place in FedExCup points this year. This 5 day tournament kicks off Feb 20^th with some key marquee matchups such as Woods/Howell III and McDowell/Harrington, just to name a few.

Rory McIlroy will be stepping on US soil for his first tournament after a bad showing with his new Nike golf clubs in Abu Dhabi.  McIlroy felt the pressure of critics recently and it didn’t take long for the youngster to fire back, denying that his equipment change was a step in he wrong direction.

“Nick Faldo doesn’t know how I feel over the golf shot and I don’t know how he felt,” McIlroy told reporters on Tuesday a day before the start to the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, in which he’s the top seed. “My guess is he was a little more analytically minded than I am.  I try to keep things as simple as possible.  If I see the ball going in the direction that I want in the flight that I want, then I’m happy.  It feels good, and hopefully I can show that to everyone this week.”

With all these greats playing this week, its tough to pick a few favorites, but of course we did.  Visit our Fantasy Golf Odds and Predictions page to find out who we have in our top 5 picks and sleepers.

(Cover Photo Credit)