The group stages of the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play tournament are now in the books and the event goes up a level from Saturday when the knockout stages get underway at the Austin Country Club in Texas.
16 men will tee it up at the start of Saturday and by the end of what will be another busy day of action we will be left with just four as the field really gets whittled down on the fourth day of the tournament.
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Day 3 Recap
It was not a good day for the likes of Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson who all had hopes of making it through to the knockout stages. They were all knocked out and will be watching the rest of the tournament from afar. That means we only have two top 10 seeds left in the tournament in Justin Thomas and Sergio Garcia.
It was an excellent day for our match bets on Friday. We had three winners which would have been all four had Adam Hadwin not failed to halve the final hole. Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Ian Poulter and Alex Noren all delivered a tidy profit for us while Aphibarnrat, Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen are all through to try and make a good weekend into a spectacular one.
Saturday Preview
We have two rounds on Saturday. The last 16 takes place in the morning session and the quarter finals take place in the afternoon. Time restrictions will deny us the chance to get stuck into the last eight but we will have a good look at the last 16 matches here in the hope of bagging a winner or two.
The last 16 matches are as follows:
Brian Harman vs Bubba Watson
Kiradech Aphibarnrat vs Charles Howell III
Sergio Garcia vs Kyle Stanley
Justin Thomas vs Si Woo Kim
Cameron Smith vs Tyrrell Hatton
Patrick Reed vs Alex Noren
Louis Oosthuizen vs Ian Poulter
Kevin Kisner vs Matt Kuchar
Saturday Betting
I’m already on Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Patrick Reed at 13.2/1 and 5.6/1 respectively having backed them both outright to eight places. Both are favourites to win their matches so there is no need to get involved in them. Louis Oosthuizen is another of my outrights although he needs to win two matches on Saturday to get a pay out. Despite that there’s no need to get involved in what looks a 50/50 contest. I will bet on two of these matches though.
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Justin Thomas vs Si Woo Kim
Match tees off at 13.03 GMT
The leading player left in the tournament, Justin Thomas, takes on The Players champion Si Woo Kim in one of the matches of the last 16 with the winner going through to play Sergio Garcia or Kyle Stanley in the quarter final.
Thomas didn’t really impress massively in his first two group matches but he came to the party in a massive way against Francesco Molinari on Friday. To be fair to Kim he has been very good all week but especially on Friday when taking care of Webb Simpson in what was a straight knockout match.
I’ve a feeling Kim will pull off an upset here. Thomas isn’t the best match player in the world but Molinari was not able to put him under any pressure on Friday due to his lack of length. That won’t be the case here as Kim can get it out there and if the short game of the Korean holds up he isn’t without a chance of an upset here at a massive price.
Kevin Kisner vs Matt Kuchar
Match tees off at 13.47 GMT
The man who came through the group which Dustin Johnson was expected to dominate, Kevin Kisner, takes on the player who has produced some of the best scoring of the week so far in Matt Kuchar for a place in the quarter final.
The highlight of Kuchar’s scoring over the first three days was his ace on Friday but he took Ross Fisher to the cleaners with a barrage of birdies in that match and it was much the same in his halved match with Zach Johnson on the opening day. Kisner has done well to come through his group but you have to say that Johnson and Wiesberger were awful and Kisner only just managed a half with Hadwin which pushed him through.
There is no doubt in my mind that Kuchar is playing the better golf of these two and the more the wind blows the better his chances are going to be. Kisner just doesn’t look comfortable to me so I’m with the former champion to come through here.
Tips
Back S-W. Kim to beat J.Thomas for a 3/10 stake at 3.25 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back M.Kuchar to beat K.Kisner for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with 888sport
Back him here:
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