2015 WGC Cadillac Match Play: Groups, format, what you need to know

The WGC Match Play is back with an all-new format and a new location.

Jason Day’s victory over Victor Dubuisson at the 2014 WGC Match Play Championship was one of the most memorable moments in world golf last year.

The extraordinary recovery shots from Dubuisson was enough to make any opponent keel over and give up but Day kept on bouncing back and eventually claimed the biggest win of his career.

As much as we loved last year’s event and as much as we love the match play format, there was something wrong with the old WGC Match Play Championship format when the number one golfer in the world can be knocked out after playing just 18 holes of golf.

Remember when Peter O’Malley beat Woods in the first round of the WGC Match Play in 2002 for example?

At least that’s what the PGA Tour thought anyway and they’ve decided to change the format this year that will see all 64 golfers play at least three matches before heading off to the next tournament.

This year the 2015 WGC Cadillac Match Play will be played at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco and the new format will follow something like the World Cup Football.

FoxSports is broadcasting all five days.

The top 16 seeded golfers (according to the world rankings) were placed in 16 groups this morning and the remaining three players were drawn blindly from three different pots ranked by seeding order (17-32, 33-48, 49-64).

The top ranked player from each of the 16 groups of four players after the round robin matches will proceed to the weekend knockout format.

Phil Mickelson withdrew from the event this week citing personal reasons, and of course Tiger Woods isn’t in the field due to his lowly world ranking. But if you take a look at the 16 groups, we’ve got some tantalising match-up’s.

2015 WGC Cadillac Match Play Groups (World ranking)

Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4

Rory McIlroy (1)
Jordan Spieth (2)
Henrik Stenson (3)
Bubba Watson (4)

Billy Horschel (19)
Lee Westwood (27)
Bill Haas (24)
Louis Oosthuizen (30)

Brandt Snedeker (36)
Matt Every (41)
Brendon Todd (43)
Keegan Bradley (34)

Jason Dufner (56)
Mikko Ilonen (68)
John Senden (65)
M-A Jimenez (69)



Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8

Jim Furyk (5)
Justin Rose (6)
Jason Day (7)
Dustin Johnson (8)

Martin Kaymer (17)
Ryan Palmer (23)
Zach Johnson (25)
Victor Dubuisson (22)

Thongchai Jaidee (45)
Anirban Lahiri (34)
Branden Grace (39)
Charl Schwartzel (38)

George Coetzee (64)
Marc Leishman (60)
Charley Hoffman (50)
Matt Jones (63)



Group 9
Group 10
Group 11
Group 12

Adam Scott (9)
Sergio Garcia (10)
Jimmy Walker (11)
J.B. Holmes (12)

Chris Kirk (26)
Jamie Donaldson (31)
Ian Poulter (28)
Brooks Koepka (20)

Paul Casey (37)
Bernd Wiesberger (40)
Webb Simpson (47)
Russell Henley (46)

F. Molinari (70)
Tommy Fleetwood (57)
Gary Woodland (52)
Marc Warren (53)



Group 13
Group 14
Group 15
Group 16

Rickie Fowler (13)
Matt Kuchar (14)
Patrick Reed (15)
H. Matsuyama (16)

Graame McDowell (33)
Hunter Mahan (32)
Ryan Moore (29)
Kevin Na (21)

Shane Lowry (48)
Stephen Gallacher (42)
Danny Willett (49)
Joost Luiten (44)

Harris English (58)
Ben Martin (67)
Andy Sullivan (61)
Alexander Levy (54)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *