Upset Central: Accenture Match Play Championship First Round

Wow, the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship ended with a slew of surpising results, including overall top seed Steve Stricker going down. Let's break down the first day of action as well as make a few predictions.

Steve Stricker vs. Ross McGowan: This match was tight, but Steve Stricker held the lead for much of the round until a birdie-birdie sequence by McGowan on 13 and 14 put him 1-up. Stricker quickly answered with a birdie of his own, and then they went extra holes. Steve bogeyed the first playoff hole while Ross parred, and the biggest upset of the tournament was sealed.

Vijay Singh (eight seed), Padraig Harrington (two seed), Lucas Glover (five seed), Anthony Kim (seven seed), and Kenny Perry (three seed) were the other big names falling in the first round.

Geoff Ogilvy handed Alexander Noren the most lopsided loss of the day at 7-up, five holes to play. They were all square through six holes until Noren fell apart with six bogeys in a row. Ogilvy birdied 13 to put it away.

Predictions

In the Bobby Jones bracket, I have Ryo Ishikawa meeting Ian Poulter in the final. This bracket is wide open with four upsets today, so anyone could emerge from this bracket. Ryo is a (really) young player who can get hot in a hurry, and Ian Poulter is coming off one of the best seasons of his career.

For the Ben Hogan bracket, I'll take Martin Kaymer and Luke Donald for the finals matchup. Kaymer is the best player in his twenties no one knows about (he won twice last year on the European Tour and recently topped Ian Poulter in the Abi Dubai Golf Championship in January), and Luke Donald's impressive play recently is hard to ignore.

Geoff Ogilvy and whoever wins the South African duel of Retief and Ernie tomorrow are my picks to emerge from the Gary Player bracket. Ogilvy is two time defending champ looking for three in a row, while the two South Africans both have their games rounding back into their previous form.

Jim Furyk and Paul Casey will be the finalists of the Sam Snead bracket. Furyk's consistent game is well suited for match play while Casey has shown he has a knack for match play as he ended as runner-up last year.

Now, these picks are totally based off my opinion and have a good chance of not being true, due to the fickle nature of the game and due to the fact that these players' skill levels are not as far apart as their seeding indicates. Regardless, it is fun to try to predict what the outcome will be at this tournament, which is one of my favorites out of the whole season. I think the tour should conduct more match play tournaments as they are by far the most entertaining.