HTWD Preview: WGC Accenture Match Play Championship

This week, the PGA Tour stops by in Arizona for a twist in format and an increase in intrigue. That's right, this week we have the always fun Match Play Championship going on. This is the closest thing we'll have to a tennis tournament or March Madness, so get ready for it folks. Just a few things to remember about this week: It starts on Wednesday, not a Thursday (due to the amount of matches that need to be played), it is a match-play knockout event (so once you lose, you're automatically out), and to win this darn thing, you have to play 6 rounds in 5 days.

We here at HTWD are pretty dang excited. We always enjoy watching match play since it doesn't get played out too much during the year. Let's take a look at some of the marquee opening round matches (number is designated seed):

Bobby Jones Bracket: 

#1 Luke Donald vs. #16 Ernie Els - A battle that places the current World No.1 vs. a former holder.

#3 Dustin Johnson vs. #14 Jim Furyk - The young American vs. the former FedEx Cup Champ.

#4 K.J. Choi vs. #13 Kyle Stanley - The Tank goes up against one of the hottest players in golf.

Sam Snead Bracket:

#1 Lee Westwood vs. #16 Nicolas Colsaerts - Let's see if the Lee can get past the long hitting Belgian.

#5 Tiger Woods vs. #12 Gonzalo Fernandez-Costano - Wherever Tiger plays, all eyes will be on him.

#6 Bill Haas vs. #14 Ryo Ishikawa - Last week's winner will go head to head with the Bashful Prince.

Gary Player Bracket:

#3 Charl Schwartzel vs. #14 Gary Woodland - Current Masters Champ goes up against a dark horse.

#4 Sergio Garcia vs. #13 Miguel Angel Jimenez - We will have our eyes on this Spanish Showdown.

#5 Keegan Bradley vs. #12 Geoff Ogilvy - The reigning PGA Champ faces the "King of Match Play".

Ben Hogan Bracket:

#8 David Toms vs. #9 Rickie Fowler - This American duo might both just put on a putting clinic.

#5 Bubba Watson vs. #12 Ben Crane - Half of the "Golf Boys" facing each other = instant fun.

#6 Hunter Mahan vs. #11 Zach Johnson - A battle of potential Ryder Cup teammates this year.

For a complete list of the matches to be played on Wednesday, click here.

So there's our take on the match play. What are your thoughts? We will be back tomorrow to give you our predictions! Stay tuned.

Photo via turner/pgatour.com