Well, it’s that time of year, the time where you hear the word “bracket” enough times to make you want to kill someone, thanks to ESPN and their never ending quest to be the most obnoxious sports programming entity in the universe. So, getting the whole “bracket” thing out of the way now, before the onslaught comes, is quite welcome. Here, we’re going to look at some of the more intriguing first round matchups, as some of them are pretty awesome.
One thing that’s kind of shocking is how highly ranked the European and Asian Tour players are compared to the stalwarts of the PGA. It really doesn’t make sense to me how some dude who competes on the Asian Tours, like Lin Wen-Tang (AK’s first round opponent) can be a 14 seed when Boo Weekley, one of the premeir ballstrikers in the game is a 13 seed and a US Open winner in Angel Cabrera is a 15. I understand that the Euro Tour guys have slightly nflated World Golf Rankings (Martin Kaymer is a 5 and Kenny Perry is only a 3, really?), but it’s hardly that big of a deal when compared someone like Prayad Marksaeng, who, while successful, isn’t in the top 200 players worldwide, let alone the top 64. Anyways…lets move on before I become an even uglier American.
5 Mike Weir vs. 12 Hunter Mahan: If you went on talent alone, Mahan would probably be the favorite here, and a near lock to get to the round of 8. But golf isn’t about just talent, and Mike Weir is the embodiment of whatever intangibles there are in the sport. The Canadian doesn’t have an 180 yard 8-iron in the bag, he can’t carry his drives 300+ yards, but what he can do is score and maximize his abilities, and there are few better players with a short iron or wedge approach shot. While Mahan has multiple major potential, Weir is the guy who’s popping up on top 10’s every week and has the green jacket and their opposing styles should make for some interesting competition.
8 Ben Curtis vs. 9 Luke Donald: For as different of approaches as Weir and Mahan had, Curtis and Donald’s styles of games are nearly identical. Neither is a long hitter or particularly aggressive, but what they lack in power and flair, they make up with accuracy and consistency. I’m not going to lie…this is probably going to be one of the more boring matches of the first round, but if you’re exposing a kid to the game, this is the one to watch…expect fairways, greens and two putts and a match that goes down to the last hole.
2 Phil Mickelson vs. 15 Angel Cabrera: Talk about a shitty draw. You’d think if you were a 2 seed, you’d get someone who’s relatively easy to beat, some first round fodder for the big dogs. Instead, Phil gets a guy who’s won a major more recently than he has and held off Tiger and Furyk at the hardest course in the world, Oakmont. Great.
Now, El Pato hasn’t been playing all that well since he won the 2007 US Open, but he’s always been a streaky player. Cabrera probably has the length advantage, and if he gets hot with his irons, it could be over soon. And while Phil is coming off a big win at Riviera, his game is still too inconsistent, though, the match play format should help him out as big numbers won’t kill you. This matchup has my full attention.
4 Justin Rose vs. 13 Boo Weekley: How the hell is Justin Rose a 4 seed and Boo a 13? Justin Rose is one of the most disappointing talents in the game, not doing much of anything in the US and being good for a first round lead in a major that goes horribly wrong once per year. Meanwhile, Boo has won twice in two years and is considered one of the finest iron players in the game, despite his goofy image. Seeing as how Boo played great in the Ryder Cup, and dispatched Sergio in the first round of last year’s Match Play, I think Rose is a heavy underdog here.
5 Adam Scott vs. 12 Sean O’Hair: Don’t let the rankings fool you, O’Hair, at this point, is the superior player. Adam Scott is THE most disappointing player in all of golf…he simply does not care about the game, only the money, and it couldn’t be any more obvious at this point.
7 Alvaro Quiros vs. 10 Stephen Ames: Two guys who deserve a lot more ink than they get. Quiros is a rising star on the European Tour, and a dude who can flat out LAUNCH it and already has a win at a desert course after smokin’ fools in Qatar. 9 & 8 Ames, is a 9 & 8 steady player who has 9 & 8 a lot of experience and has 9 & 8 contended on Sunday in a few 9 & 8 majors. But then again…who can forget 9 & 8?
The Snead Bracket: Jim Furyk vs. Anders Hansen, Martin Kaymer vs. Stuart Appleby, Henrik Stenson vs. Davis Love III, KJ Choi vs. Oliver Wilson, and Justin Leonard vs. Andres Romero are all phenomenal matches. You know all of these players by now, and their foils couldn’t make for a better matchup, especially in the first round. Whoever set this bracket up should get some sort of medal or trophy or something.
But for all those great matchups, the 1 Paddy vs. 16 Pat Perez match is the best. If you went by reputation alone, Paddy would be the clear cut favorite…but not so fast, my friend (/Corso). Perez is one of the best desert players in golf and Paddy isn’t nearly as good in ideal scoring conditions as he is when the weather is inclement. Paddy is playing in Perez’ house when Perez is playing some solid golf, and if there’s one 1/16 matchup that stinks like upset, it’s this one.
1 Tiger Woods vs. 16 Brendan Jones: For the obvious reasons.
February 24, 2009 at 10:48 am
Two points:
1) The Euro guys may be better, there is a reason they have dominated the Ryder Cup’s recently.
2) Stephen Ames has the biggest 18 hole winning and losing margins in this event.
February 24, 2009 at 11:15 am
Not even sure where to begin.
I’ll start with Justin Rose. He is ranked so high because of all his great finishes. He was recently 2nd in Dubai, finished 2nd in last years Memorial, was T9 at the PGA he won the Volvo Masters in Europe and also finsished 2nd at the previous years WGC at Firestone and at the BMW PGA. He has A LOT of great finishes.
Boo Weekly on the other hand has only one top 5 finish since his last win in April. His best finish in a big event (major, WGC, Players) is T9. I think Weekly is ranked just where he belongs. Because he is a moron we pay more attention to him and think of him as better than he actually is. He could beat Rose but their resumes don’t really compare IMO. Take away Hilton Head and Weekly might be lucky to have a tour card.
Count me as someone who doesn’t see Martin Kaymer as an inflated 5 seed. He has 9 top 5 finishes in the last 2 years (same as Kenny Perry) with 2 wins. He has only played a handful of tourneys in the US and is just getting his feet wet. Head to head I see no reason Kaymer would be afraid of Kenny Perry.
I think the best match-up is Stenson vs. Love. Stenson has been great in this event with the win and a 3rd but Love is 18-8 in this format and he lost in the finals to Ogilvy in 06. Stenson has to be one of the faves to get thru to the semis but his first match might be his toughest.
February 24, 2009 at 11:22 am
BTW, Rose was the European Order of Merit winner in 08. Does anyone think Weekly would be capable of that?
47 of the players in the field this week are from the European Tour. That number is a little inflated over last years 31 due to the draw of the new race to Dubai but it still speaks volumes about how much of a global game this is.
February 24, 2009 at 11:30 am
I love Boo as a personality but agree with leeds 100% on ability. AC is going to hate me but I can take it.
I’ve cleared my schedule and plan to do nothing for the next several days. I cannot wait for the Paddy matchup. I saw that pairing and immediately set the DVR.
February 24, 2009 at 11:31 am
i guess my anti-justin rose bias got the best of me. he still is disappointing, though, and weekley is a lot better of a player than you give him credit for. sure the schtick is extremely stale, even after two years, but he’s one of the game’s premier ballstrikers. i respect his game immensely.
man…im really going to have to start watching more Euro Tour so i don’t get ripped apart so often.
February 24, 2009 at 11:32 am
Sorry to triple post but I also wanted to comment on Marksaeng.
spencer, what makes you say he isn’t in the top 200 in the world, let alone the top 64. He’s here isn’t he?
The dude won the Dunlop Phoenix last season, a tournament with a very prestigious list of past winners. And he beat a solid field.
Obviously he plays on a lesser tour but isn’t it the same tour that has us all fired up about Ryo? While I agree the competition is nothing like here in the US, that is all reflected in the points given out in the world rankings.
I have no full blown proof that he is one of the top 64 but I think the world rankings are done fairly and I find it hard to believe that someone with the resume of Marksaeng has 140+ players in the world more deserving than him of being here.
Does Ryo deserve to be within 3 spots of being in the field? Look at his results and then look at thsoe of Marksaeng and you be the judge. You can link both players from this page. Marksaeng is 52, Ryo 67.
http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/rankings/default.sps?region=world&PageCount=2
February 24, 2009 at 11:40 am
I didn’t mean to rip Weekly. I have no problem with him. He is a heck of a player. I would be the last guy surprised if he won this tournament. I have great respect for what he COULD do.
My point about Weekly was about what he HAS done. He is off to a great start to his career, already having two wins. But he has done nothing close to winning an Order of Merit. He has had about a months worth of good finishes and one of those was at the Ryder Cup which isn’t reflected in the world rankings. Rose on the other hand has a long list of accomplishments and yes when talking world rankings, finishing 2nd a bunch of times counts.
But yes, I hear what you are saying. After knocking in that shot at the 98 British, Rose arrived and was expected to do more. And like you I see the first round leads at majors that result in T23s. I hear you on that. Rose has underperformed to the point where he is a 4 or a 5 seed instead of a 1 (which is where many saw him headed). But Weekly hasn’t performed to the level of a 4 or a 5.
February 24, 2009 at 11:44 am
leeds…with marksaeng, it’s all about the tour. i don’t like the way the WGR are calculated and think there’s just way too many variables and the weighting isn’t accurate.
don’t mistake this for being an objective piece, because it’s not. when im looking at marksaeng’s stats, he hasn’t done well when playing in the big worldwide events or whenever i see him on the euro tour coverage. this is all gut reaction, nothing scientific, and it’s probably because of my PGA bias that i hold players who play a lot here in a higher regard (which is the same reason im so down on casey and rose).
February 24, 2009 at 11:51 am
excellent, we’re on the same page, i think. im not saying boo should be a 3 or rose a 16, but that both should be in the 7-9 range.
February 24, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Well if Rose is in the 7-9 range than that means you think he is a Justin Leonard, Luke Donald type player. How is that fair to Rose when he has done more than those two?
And same with Weekly. If you are rising him up that high then it means you are rewarding him for doing less than the guys who actually hold those positions. Boo is close to that level but he needs a high finish, especially one at a major to make the jump.
Back to Marksaeng, I wish you could explain a little better your distaste for the rankings.
Aren’t tournaments weighted accordingly based on the field. A win in Asia is about 1/4 as good as a win in the US. A decent Euro win, like the one by Danny Lee will only get you 1/2 of the points as a win in the US. A guy like Marksaeng has to win 3-4 times to get the points Phil gets for winning once.
We all know international wins are not as highly regarded as US wins. But isn’t that why the points work out the way they do?
I think things are done pretty well when it comes to ranking players who play on six different sanctioned tours:
PGA
Europe
Sunshine
Asia
Japan
Australasia
February 24, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Hey spencer, just saw over on the big lead that you asked what happened with the Cs and Nuggets last night. I can tell you.
The Celtics do this whenever people question them. The more the stupid media criticizes them and explains how tough it will be for them without KG, they step up and do things like this. Do you think Rajon Rondo got sick of hearing about the Phoenix Suns? Yes, which is why he scored a career high on them on Sunday.
Not to mention, the Nuggets embarassed the Celtics back in mid November in Boston, beating them by double digits.
The Celtics still have 3 all stars (Rondo is as good of a PG as there is in the east), even without KG and two guys, Leon Powe and especially Big Baby who don’t want to listen to KG rip them for filling in poorly for him. They want to do him proud.
I know you are a Cavs fan and probably could care less about the Celtics but should the two teams meet in the play-offs, be very wary of the media handing the series to Cleveland. I’m not saying Cleveland can’t beat them or that Boston WILL beat them. Not at all. Just saying that if the media jumps on the Lebron bandwagon, which you can see coming from a mile away, it will be in the Celtics favor.
Back to golf.
February 24, 2009 at 1:57 pm
believe me, as a clevelander, i never think anything’s a done deal till the final bell. tho i do think it’s funny that the cavs/LBJ are considered media darlings when the celts are still “the best team in the NBA” despite, you know, not being the best team in the NBA. smack talk has to start early, right?
as for the WGR rankings…i have a post planned on that closer to the WGC CA champ. i don’t wanna show my hand before that, you know?
February 24, 2009 at 3:15 pm
OK Spence, I’ll leave you alone on the world rankings. For now :).
And screw hoops. I’m here to talk golf.
Couple of match-ups that I think you left out that are quite intriguing.
McIlroy vs. Oosthuizen. Rory has jumped to the top 20 in the world with his win in Dubai while Oosthuizen looked hopeless for this tourney six weeks ago. Since the start of the year his worst start is a T10 and he has two 7s and a pair of T2s to go with it. He has jumped nearly 100 spots in the rankings. Him winning would not be an upset IMO. If the winner of this match can win a second, they’ll likely face Tiger in round 3.
Tim Clark and Retief for the right to play Tiger in round 2 (if Woods wins of course).
Steve Stricker and Dustin Johnson. Pair of Americans who have been playing some great golf.
If Sergio is on his game he has what looks like an easy road. He’ll get the Jeev Milka Singh (little experience on US Soil but a heckuva player) – Ian Poulter (only played once this year) winner. After that it could be anybody but the two highest ranked possibilities are Justin Rose and Adam Scott. I’m sure that excites you spencer.
I could easily see Martin Kaymer winning his bracket. He gets Appleby then the Furyk-Anders Hansen winner. This is Paddy’s bracket and Kaymer would play he, Perez, Allenby or Ross Fischer to get to quarterfinals. Could be done.
I’m concerned for my man Stenson. He potentially might have to through Davis Love, Romero and Anthony Kim to get to the quarters. Ouch. If you break each bracket in half, this might be the best half in the entire field. The top half I mentioned earlier, with Paddy evens it out though.
February 24, 2009 at 3:37 pm
re: stenson…he got the shaft, big time. hell, all the guys in the snead bracket did…look at that thing, it’s absolutely loaded with great players. whomever comes out of that side is going to have earned it.
im pretty intrigued by a possible vijay/phil matchup in the hogan bracket. they HATE each other.
and speaking of hate each other, if there’s a golf god, he’ll let sergio make it through the player bracket and paddy make it through the snead bracket. that’d be ‘save until i delete’ material on the DVR fo sho.
February 24, 2009 at 4:07 pm
That Stenson-Love/Leonard-Romero pod is brutal. I think any of those four can get to the semifinals if they escape that pod.
Sergio could also face Boo in the round of 16. They have a little history, and Boo knocked Sergio out in this event last year.
Another round of 16 possibility is Woods vs. McIlroy. That would be a fun match to watch – Tiger in his return facing off against one of the Next Tigers.
For some reason I think Aaron Baddeley can go far. He hasn’t hit the ball well at all, but he has the type of game that pisses off opponents in match play – hit the ball all over the place but get up and down from everywhere. That really drives people crazy.
February 24, 2009 at 5:22 pm
what are the chances that Tiger and Sergio meet? Would the PGA cream themselves?
February 24, 2009 at 6:32 pm
no…they’ll cream themselves a few weeks down the road when they see the ticket sales and ratings from the WGC CA and Arnie’s event.
dream matchups:
1. tiger vs. phil
2. tiger vs. vijay
3. tiger vs. sergio
4. tiger vs. paddy
5. sergio vs. paddy
and tiger looks good from the practice round’s highlights. but damn do his press conferences suck.
February 24, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Sergio and Paddy is about as good as you can do with a non Tiger match-up. I have one that will NEVER happen but would certainly create some buzz if it did.
The only way this goes down is if both guys make the Finals but how about:
Lee Westwood
VS.
Boo Weekly
This of course goes back to the Ryder Cup when Westwood said Weekly should cool it. The atmosphere would potentially be Ryder Cup-esque.
Couple of other thoughts:
Tiger is in the Bobby Jones bracket but they should have named it the Gary Player bracket. Of the 8 South Africans in the field, 5 are in Tiger’s bracket. Retief, Tim Clark, Rory, Oosthuizen and Immelman.
Tiger’s bracket looks the hardest to me. All the guys listed above except Immelman are playing well right now and Ogilvy (former winner), Wier, Mahan and McIlroy are also in this bracket.
I believe Anders Hansen of Denmark is the only player in the field with two wins this season. Both have come on the Sunshine Tour with one co-sanctioned by the European Tour. He plays Furyk in round one and I will be interested to see if Hansen can continue his strong play. In six starts this season Hansen has finished no worse than 16th. That includes all 3 events in the desert on the Euro Tour.
I know I said it before but I keep going back to Martin Kaymer. I like his 8 team pod and he has had A LOT of success in the desert in Europe. He won Abu Dhabi last season and finished 2nd in Dubai. Then this season he finished 2nd in Abu Dhabi and 4th in Dubai. That is some very strong play against some quality fields.
February 24, 2009 at 8:16 pm
westwood vs. boo would be juicy…it’d be interesting to see what boo would do when he’s getting hounded by press for extracurricular bullshit and i’ve long been a fan of westwood. plus, they have similar games and can put up low numbers when the short irons get hot.
i still think the snead bracket is the deepest, but tiger’s isn’t exactly easy. ogilvy is a top player and he’s close to home and familiar with that style of course. weir took tiger down in the president’s cup and mahan had a pressure packed day of singles at the ryder cup. id even go as far to say that if tiger matched up with ogilvy, ogilvy would be the favorite considering the Knee.
and i’m with you…i can’t wait to see kaymer. and mcilroy.
this feels like a major. match play is awesome…i wish they’d make the PGA a match play event again.
February 24, 2009 at 10:38 pm
I agree, more match play.
They do play what they called the HSBC world match play championship on the European Tour and it always seems to draw a great field and a few Americans. It is late September.
The field is limited to 16 players and I am not sure how it is chosen but Tiger played in 2007 and lost to Shaun Micheel in the first round.
I agree that it feels like a major and to me it should. Take away the “major” label and all you have is a golf tournament where pretty much every top pro is in the field. That is essentially what we have here, just with a slightly smaller field and a dumpier course.
I see what you are saying about that other bracket. It is equally as strong as Tiger’s. I don’t have much faith as Paddy at the very top at this course but Perez is an intriguing 16 and guys like Allenby, Kaymer, Love, Stenson, Kim, Choi and Furyk can put up birdies in bunches. There are about 5 other guys who could win the bracket as well.
This is going to be a great week. Not sure if I’ll post again before the action starts so I am going to give my picks here.
Finals: Stenson vs. Ogilvy
3rd Pl: Sergio vs. Westwood