Tuesday 28 April 2015 15:38, UK
With a new venue and new format, Ben Coley looks at the potential front-runners at this week's WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship.
The WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship has undergone a full makeover since Jason Day famously saw off a maverick Victor Dubuisson challenge some 14 months ago.
First and foremost, the format has been altered and this is no longer a straight, 64-man head-to-head knockout. Instead, there are 16 groups of four and let’s make no mistake – the aim of this is to ensure that the star names aren’t packing their bags after 18 holes or even fewer.
So, Rory McIlroy – the top seed, of course – will play Billy Horschel, Jason Dufner and Brandt Snedeker in the first round. Should he top his group, he’ll progress to the knockout phase where he’ll have to win four more matches to lift his first professional match play title. The same goes for Jordan Spieth, who is in the other half of the draw and therefore cannot meet McIlroy until the final. For the sponsors, that is the dream.
Then there’s the course. No longer are we at the much-maligned Dove Mountain, a long Jack Nicklaus design in Arizona. Instead we’re out in San Francisco at the beautiful Harding Park, an older, more intricate layout that may bear some similarities to Olympic Club, where Webb Simpson won the US Open. Harding Park hosted a WGC strokeplay event in 2005, won by Tiger Woods, as well as the 2009 Presidents Cup which was dominated by Team USA.
Throw in the fact that the final will take place in May rather than February and it’s fair to say much has changed and that may suit Zach Johnson.
The American has a really good profile for this event with one exception – his actual performances in it. Johnson has received thumpings over the last few years, including at the hands of Richard Sterne in 2014, and were we at Dove Mountain there would be absolutely no temptation to support him.
But the move to Harding Park, a relatively short course which should favour the accurate hitters, could ignite a change in fortunes for a player who has been outstanding for the USA in team match play. Even as the US have been beaten in the 2010, 2012 and 2014 Ryder Cups, Johnson has gone unbeaten in the Sunday singles, winning two of them.
Recently, he’s contended at the Masters having also played well in Texas beforehand and while he’s in the same group as Day, on this course it’s no formality that the Aussie will advance.
Also in the bottom half of the draw, Ian Poulter makes obvious appeal.
Bar a mishap at Gleneagles, Poulter’s match play record is exemplary and he may arrive here feeling like he needs to remind everyone of that. Certainly, he won’t have enjoyed the 2014 Ryder Cup like he did the two previous and in my opinion his strong play since is a reflection of the fact he has something to prove.
Poulter could and perhaps should have won the Honda Classic earlier this year and played really well at the Masters, finishing sixth, so he arrives here with strong form to match a fearsome reputation. A former winner of the event who has twice been a beaten semi-finalist, few can boast such strong credentials and I believe he can overcome a group which includes the tough-to-beat Jimmy Walker.
At the top, I think Paul Casey could be the man to upstage McIlroy should their paths cross in the quarter-finals.
Casey has twice been runner-up in this event and a return to match play can help him continue some brilliant play in 2015, which has seen him return to the world’s top 50 which is absolutely where he belongs.
Casey won the 2006 HSBC World Match Play at Wentworth, thrashing Shaun Micheel 10&8 in the final, while earlier this year he lost a play-off for the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, a course which bears some resemblance to Harding Park.
Finally, Graeme McDowell is selected in the hope that he meets Casey in the semi-finals.
McDowell has won the Volvo World Match Play and has reached the quarter-finals in his last two starts in this event, losing to Victor Dubuisson last year having previously seen off defending champion Hunter Mahan.
As with Johnson, a switch to this more testing golf course should really suit a player who beat none other than Spieth in the Ryder Cup last year and on the back of a decent effort at Harbour Town last time the second seed is much fancied in a tricky group and progress to the knockout stage.
Watch the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship live from April 29-May 3 live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
