We will be treated to the final Match Play event of the PGA Tour beginning on Wednesday from Austin, Texas. The Tour’s best players will congregate at Austin Country Club for the seventh consecutive year to compete in a Round Robin-styled event that departs from the default stroke play scoring we typically see in favor of Match Play scoring.
It works like this if you aren’t familiar with Match Play scoring. 16 groups consisting of four players will play every member of his group once during the first three days at Austin CC. The player with the best record in the four-player groups will then advance to the Round of 16 to begin competing in single-elimination match play. Scoring is simplified for every matchup, rewarding the winner of a particular hole with 1 point and the loser with 0 points. Of course, if a tie is on a certain hole, both players are given 0.5 point. Winning the hole means that a player scored lower than his opponent, which could be a birdie compared to a par, a par compared to a bogey, and so on. If two or more players in a group are tied with the highest point total at the conclusion of the Round Robin group play, they will compete in a stroke-play hole-by-hole playoff to advance to the Round of 16. It’s also important to note that once a player leads by more holes than there are left to play, he becomes the default winner. This applies during the Round Robin and the single-elimination matchups on Saturday and Sunday, which will feature two rounds per day, starting with the Round of 16, progressing to the quarterfinals and semi-finals, and concluding with the Championship and Consolation Matches.
