The story of ‘the older the ginger, the hotter’ on Dell Match Play

Dell Match Play brings together the world’s top 64 (OWGR table), evenly divided into 16 groups for round-robin play in the first three days, then knockouts to the final. Each win is worth one point and a draw is half a point.

To classify the seeds, the organizers based on world position to collect 16 players for each segment marked from A to D. In 54th place, Bland belongs to group D. He mainly plays DP World Tour – the new name of the European Tour from 2022 – and not much opportunity to try on the PGA Tour.

British golfers advance to Dell Match Play after three round-robin matches, with two wins and a draw. On the opening day of March 23, Bland shared the points with Bryson DeChambeau – the “distant boss” of the PGA Tour. The next day, he won Talor Gooch 1up, even though his opponent was the seed of Group B. Yesterday, March 25, Bland won 2up when he met Lee Westwood – former world number one and compatriot.

Bland comes to this year’s Dell Match Play – a tournament with a prize pool of USD 12 million – thanks to a “no fighting to advance” strategy.

Complete the list according to the OWGR results by March 15th. In mid-February, Bland sought advice as he wasn’t sure where he was when he was ranked 61. But the chance to improve his position was in The Players Championship from March 10 to March 13. However, Bland was advised to cancel the PGA Tour event. He complied and did reach his 55th OWGR in mid-March, from there holding tickets to Dell Match Play.

“I think I can be number one in the world if I close the club between now and the end of the year,” Bland joked after his win over Lee Westwood. With this result, Bland became the oldest golfer to enter the 1/8 round, since the tournament adopted a round-robin tournament in 2015.

On the morning of March 26 (evening of the same day, Hanoi time), Bland will meet Dustin Johnson, who won two majors in 24 PGA Tour championships, accumulating 135 weeks holding the world top. Johnson won all three group games.

In international professional golf, Bland is an example of perseverance. He turned professional in 1996, but in mid-May 2021 won the European Tour for the first time, in English Master . At that time, aged 48, Bland became the oldest golfer to win the trophy in Europe’s number one arena, born in 1972. This victory was achieved after 478 tournaments over 25 years and three times down to the Challenge Tour. second place.

Bland was last relegated in 2019. “It was painful, because I was 46 years old, probably the same age as the father of most of my team-mates. But I didn’t give up. Bored, tired of a series of matches. bad days but I didn’t give up and was determined to achieve my unfinished goals,” said Bland holding the British Masters.

Quoc Huy

at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here