Fantasy Golf Predictions – 2013 WGC Accenture Match Play Championship

Fantasy Golf Predictions for the 2013 WGC Accenture Match Play Championship Feb 20-24

The Course: The Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona will play host to this event for the fifth straight year.  Last May, the PGA TOUR announced that the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship would remain in the Tucson area through 2014.  Dove Mountain is a modern-day Jack Nicklaus design that measures 7,791 yards and remains the longest course on the PGA TOUR. Fairways are pretty wide but there aren’t many even lies out there.  The greens average 6,000 square feet, however, the undulations should tighten up the targets.  Simply put, there is nothing easy about Dove Mountain and you’ll find some top seeds knocked out early.  As of Monday Feb 18, 64 of the top 66 in the Official World Golf Rankings are scheduled to compete.  Phil Mickelson will be out to spending time with family and FedEx Cup point leader Brandt Snedeker is resting a rib injury.

The Weather in Tucson, AZ (from Weather.com):

• Round 1: Thursday (Feb 21)   56 degrees, 0% chance of rain, mostly sunny.
• Round 2: Friday (Feb 22)   59 degrees, 0% chance of rain, sunny.
• Round 3: Saturday (Feb 23)   68 degrees, 0% chance of rain, sunny.
• Round 4: Sunday (Feb 24)   62 degrees, 0% chance of rain, mostly sunny.

2012 Results: Match play is fun, no question about it.  Last year’s battle was intense and Hunter Mahan and Rory McIlroy duked it out in the final match before Mahan took the crown.  The now world No.1 McIlroy and Mahan halved two of their first four holes in bogey fives, before Mahan hit his tee-shot to two feet short at the sixth.  More bad news happened for McIlroy when he saw his chip at the seventh roll back to him, which led to the wheels beginning to fall off for Rory.  After posting a 6 after driving into a bunker on the 8th, McIlroy found himself three down and a miss from nine feet at the 10^th pushed his deficit to four back.  Mahan sealed the deal for the win with a par at the 17^th.

[embedplusvideo height=”365″ width=”600″ standard=”http:http://www.youtube.com/v/FwEm6lLW4L4?fs=1&start=18″ vars=”ytid=FwEm6lLW4L4&width=600&height=365&start=18&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep4139″ /]

Notes:  Again, Brandt Snedeker and Phil Mickelson will not be competing in this year’s event due to personal reasons.

Top 5 Picks/Odds to Win:

• Charl Schwarztel (Golficity Odds: 8/1):  Charl is still hot so we’ll be riding the Schwarztel train again this week..  Schwarztel just fell short last week, missing a decent putt on 18 that would have brought him into the playoff with Beljan and Merrick.  He still looks good out there and his bracket is beatable.  We have him beating Padraig Harrington in the Bobby Jones bracket to advance.  He could win this thing…
• Louis Oosthuizen (Golficity Odds: 12/1):  We have Louis winning the Hogan bracket.  He won in South Africa in early January, which was his seventh top five in an eight-event stretch.  Louis is considered unbeatable by most, so long as his putting stroke connects with Dove Mountain’s tough greens.
• Tiger Woods (Golficity Odds: 15/1):  Tiger is a clear favorite because of how well he’s been playing this year and because he is a 3-time winner at Dove Mountain.  Woods is a in tough bracket, but we still feel he will carry some of that Torrey Pines magic over to Dove Mountain, even though he’s been hiding out since that late-January event.
• Luke Donald (Golficity Odds: 18/1): The 2011 champ still looks good on the course, with a nice showing last week.  Holed out five times from off the green at Riviera and finished T16.  He’s also no stranger to Dove Mountain.
• Hunter Mahan (Golficity Odds: 23/1):  Last year’s champ is moving right along, placing high in tournaments and becoming a contender again.  He certainly knows this track well after beating McIlroy last year in a epic showdown with Rory who collapsed late in the round with multiple bogeys.

Sleeper Picks/Odds to Win:

• Fredrik Jacobson (Golficity Odds: 50/1): Jacobson finished third at the Northern Trust Open on Sunday to secure his second straight top 10.  He sits in the Hogan bracket as the 12-seed and will face Ernie Els in the opening round.  Fredrik has been knocked out in the first round in each of the last three years, and Ernie hasn’t lost in the first round yet; but the Jacobson currently leads the PGA TOUR in strokes gained-putting, sits second in adjusted scoring, and ranks T11 in bogey avoidance.  He looked really sharp at Riviera last weekend and seems to have found a stride.
• Padraig Harrington (Golficity Odds: 62/1):  Harrington has looked pretty good lately.  In fact, we have him losing to Schwarztel in the Jones bracket.  He could surprise here, so be on the lookout for Padraig.

Last Week’s Fantasy Predictions Results (The Northern Trust Open):

• Charl Schwartzel (Golficity Odds 14/1):  T3
• Sergio Garcia (Golficity Odds 18/1):  T13
• Phil Mickelson (Golficity Odds 20/1):  T21
• Jimmy Walker (Golficity Odds 20/1):  T16
• Dustin Johnson: (Golficity Odds 25/1):  MC

Last Week’s Fantasy Sleeper Picks/Odds to Win:

• Ryan Moore (Golficity Odds 50/1):  T27
• Adam Scott (Golficity Odds 50/1):   T10

Golficity’s 2013 “Top 5 Picks” Winners: 2 for 4