The World Golf Championship (WGC) Dell Match Play event is the most unique event that we will see on the PGA TOUR this season. Sixty-four (64) golfers compete in 16 groups, four golfers in each group. Each golfer will play against every other golfer in their group on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. One golfer will move on from the group to the Sweet 16. Winners will advance through the Sweet 16, to the Elite 8, the Final 4, and the Championship match. Unique events are great, especially in a new game format like DraftKings Reignmakers, because it means there is likely an edge to be had! Let’s dig in.

Playing Optimally

This is one of the most fun golf events of the year and you will want to TRY to play optimally! How do you play optimally? Playing optimally means that all five of your golfers in a given lineup have a direct path to the ELITE 8.

If you have two golfers in your lineup that match up against each other in Group play (DO NOT PLAY TWO GOLFERS FROM THE SAME GROUP) or the Sweet 16, then playing those golfers together in your lineup is NOT PLAYING OPTIMALLY.

The image below lays out the bracket and allows you to see who your golfers will be matched up against. To play optimally, the five golfers in your lineup should be able to get to one of the eight the yellow squares without playing against each other:

As long as you play optimally, you give yourself the best chance to win! Match play golf can be even more volatile than traditional stroke play, so create optimal lineups and embrace the chaos!

Golfers To Target

We’ve said this before, but in DraftKings Reignmakers, we want to try to think and plan ahead as much as possible when determining which golfers we may want to add to our collection to fill out our lineups. Golfers like Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, and mostly any #1 seed across the 16 groups listed above are great golfers. I won’t list those guys here. If you have one of them, jam them into your captain spot and enjoy the sweat, while optimally creating your lineups. Here are a few other golfers I like at the Match Play and why:

• Tom Hoge LOW ASKS, CORE $8.99, RARE $45.69, ELITE: $350: Ranked 24th in the OWGR rankings, he is an incredible ball striker. He gained 10+ strokes ball striking at The Players Championship and almost 9 strokes on approach. Hoge and his elite tier ball striker are rounding into form as we approach Augusta where he will also be in the field for the DELUXE Reignmakers contests.
• Maverick McNealy LOW ASKS, CORE $6, RARE $33.99, ELITE: $275: Coming back from a slight shoulder injury, McNealy continued his streak of made cuts at both The Players and the Valspar Championship. He’s young in his PGA TOUR career at 27 years old and I look for him to continue playing well. His last official missed cut was in September 2022 and he closed 2022 with 3 top 10s.
• Adam Svensson LOW ASKS, CORE $5.50, RARE $37.99, ELITE: $280: Off to a fast start in 2023, and he finds himself playing against another elite field. I would not be shocked to see him win Group 9 against the likes of Collin Morikowa and Jason Day who are both playing top tier golf. His strokes gained data suggests his game is well rounded and confidence is seemingly high coming off a T13 at The Players, T24 at the Arnold Palmer, and T9 at The Genesis. A nice bonus and a common theme for golfers I like, Svensson will be in the field at the Masters for the DELUXE Reignmakers contests.

In conclusion, build optimal lineups when you can, and embrace the chaos of this format. If you want to have a bit more fun on top of your Reignmakers teams, join our Jolly Joker Sports Society Bracket Challenge league here: https://fantasybracket.pgatour.com/#/league-detail/6048 password: JJSS.

Best of luck, and I’ll see you all on the leaderboards!