Match It!

Tomorrow's Accenture Championship will be the first match play tournament I've seen. From what I hear, I'm really looking forward to seeing some exciting playing. My friend (and partner @ GolfAlong.com), Michael Huh, sent me a link to GolfWeek's Match Play Challenge bracket. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. In the course of entering my picks, I was forced to research practically everyone on it so I could at least make semi-educated choices. A lot of the names were unknown to me. Most of the golfers that I'm familiar with are names I've heard over the past few weeks. So I apologize in advance if I happen to have no clue who this golfer or that golfer is. I am still learning :)

I won't go over the entire bracket - that would take too long and would only highlight my ignorance of this great game. Here are a couple of my key picks:


First round:

K.J. Choi vs. Kyle Stanley - Kyle's a young pro, but with his win at Phoenix and two Top 10 finishes out of five total events so far this season (compared to Choi's one Top 10 out of three total events and no wins), it looks like Kyle is having the more solid season.

Ben Crane vs. Bubba Watson - Two great names in golf. This was a tough choice. Looking solely at the stats, Ben Crane looks like the more obvious choice, but in the end I had to go with Bubba because - let's face it - he's Bubba and he's awesome.

Sergio Garcia vs. Miguel Angel Jimenez - Garcia made a great showing at last week's Northern Trust Open, coming in tied for 4th place. I think the strength of his game is going to win out over Jimenez.

Keegan Bradley vs. Geoff Ogilvy - Here's where I admit to not knowing who Ogilvy is, other than the fact that he was cut last week. Bradley hung in there with the best on Sunday and after being so close to the brass ring and not being able to grab it, I think he's really going to bring his A game.

Bill Haas vs. Ryo Ishikawa - Ishikawa is another name I'm unfamiliar with (sorry!) but, after looking at the stats, Bill Haas looks like the stronger player. Plus, after Haas' incredible win on Sunday, I think he's going to go two for two.

Those are the highlights from my first round picks. It'll be interesting to see how spot-on I am! If you want to see my complete bracket, you can check it out here.