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Notebook: Deadlines loom to get in Match Play and Players Ch'ship

By Doug Ferguson
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Notebook: Deadlines loom to get in Match Play and Players Ch'ship

 
One measure of the rise in American golfers is the field for the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship, which takes the top 64 from the world ranking. Thirty Americans are eligible to compete next week at Harding Park, the most since there were 33 Americans in 2004 at La Costa.
 
At first glance, it would seem the one-time move to the first weekend in May would contribute to the increase. The Match Play Championship typically is at the end of February, right after the European Tour has some of its strongest fields during the Middle East Swing.
 
So what would have happened if Match Play had been in its usual spot on the calendar? There still would have been 29 Americans in the field. Then again, that list would have included Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker.
 
Stricker would have been No. 59. Now he's at No. 74. Woods would have been No. 62, and now he's at No. 106.
 
Then again, that increase in top American players hasn't translated into another match-play event held every other year in September.
 
The world ranking after this week will be used to determine the seeding for the five-day event. Unlike previous years, the top four seeds are irrelevant because of the round-robin format involving 16 groups of four players.
 
The top 16 players will lead each group. A random draw will fill out each group based on players from Nos. 17-32, 33-48 and 49-64 in the ranking. Players have until Friday to commit to the World Golf Championship. 
 
Luke Donald has said he would not be playing because his brother is getting married that week. That means Miguel Angel Jimenez (65) would get in. And because Tim Clark is still recovering from an elbow injury, he will replaced by Francesco Molinari
.
ANOTHER DEADLINE: Another week brings another deadline for a big tournament.
 
The 144-man field for The Players Championship will be mostly set after the Zurich Classic. All but eight players have secured spots to play for a $10 million prize fund on May 7-10 at the TPC Sawgrass. The rest are to be determined through the world ranking (unless someone not already eligible wins in New Orleans).
 
Ten players not already eligible are among the top 50 in the world ranking, although Danny Willett at No. 48 is not playing and is projected to fall out of the top 50. Marc Warren of Scotland (No. 53) is playing the Zurich Classic. Tommy Fleetwood of England (No. 55) is playing the Volvo China Open. They have a chance to play their way into the richest tournament in golf.
 
The 144 players is not a limit. It can go beyond that if the winners from the Zurich Classic or Match Play Championship are not eligible, or if more than eight players crack the top 50 in the world.
 
The FedExCup is the alternate list to fill the minimum 144 spots. Going into New Orleans, the top three on that list are Daniel Berger, Sean O'Hair and Justin Thomas.
 
DIVOTS: Jim Furyk now has 201 bogey-free rounds on the PGA Tour, the most of any player dating to 1983 and 22 more than anyone else (Jeff Sluman had 179). ... The Hyundai Tournament of Champions will return to a Sunday finish in 2016. It had been scheduled for a Monday finish the last five years (except for 2013 when it was a 54-hole event that didn't start until Monday because of high wind). ... The British Open will have a new look with the grandstands at St. Andrews, along with a new color. The seats will be blue this year to match the color of the R&A's logo.
 
STAT OF THE WEEK: Jim Furyk led the field in scrambling at the RBC Heritage. It was the 25th time he has led a PGA Tour event in scrambling, the most of any player dating to 1992. Tiger Woods is next on the list at 21.
 
FINAL WORD: "All you can do on this tour is build on it, wake up tomorrow and go try again next week." – Kevin Kisner, winless in 90 starts on the PGA Tour, after his playoff loss to Jim Furyk in the RBC Heritage.
 
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