Feb 25

Written by:
2/25/2009 

Have you ever sat down and tried to fill out a bracket for a PGA Tour match play tournament?  After the first two days at the WCG Accenture Match Play event in Tucson, I'm convinced it's harder to predict than any NCAA tournament.

How can I say that?  Let me lay it out for you.

Since 2000, I've participated in an NCAA office pool with between 75 and 100 entries.  For some reason, I've always been pretty luck and have wound up winning the thing four of the last nine years.  Now let's look at my success in picking the winner of the past few match play events.

I did pick Tiger last year to win it all.  He's the world's top player and it's hard not to pick him to win anytime he tees it up.  On the other hand, missed like 20 of the first 32 matches.  Not good.
 
This year, I had both Sergio and Tiger into the semifinals with Sergio actually winning it all.  Well, following he second day of play in the desert, all four number one seeds are out and Camillo Villegas and 19-year-old Rory McIlroy look great.

When you compare the NCAA tournament to something like the Accenture, it's hard to say which should be easier to choose correctly.  With basketball, you can usually tell just how strong a team as a whole really is.  Sure, there are upsets, but look at last year's event in which all four top seeds were playing over the final weekend.  Golf is different because all of these guys are so good at what they do that any of them can come out of the woodwork and get a win. 

Groove the irons and you're in every match.  Get a hot putter and you'll win every match.

A lot of people probably won't watch this weekend since Woods won't be playing, but I'm convinced that a Tiger-free weekend could be even more exciting.  You'll get to see some guys playing with a lot of heart and fire, while Tiger heads home to finish shaking off the rust and getting ready for The Masters.