The PGA and European Tours’ elite players head to Marana, Arizona this week for the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, and an exciting five days of match play golf gets underway tomorrow. I will be there on Wednesday along with 64 of the top players in the world rankings as play gets underway at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain. Two considerably more notable names in the golf world will be absent — Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. However the new #2 ranked player in the word Steve Stricker will be there along with other notable names such as Lee Westwood, Jim Furyk, Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Geoff Ogilvy and many others who will be looking to be last man standing on Sunday.

Nike Golf is well represented in the field of 64 — here is the list of Nike Golf athletes in the field in order of their current world ranking:

Paul Casey (7)
Stewart Cink (21)
Lucas Glover (22)
Anthony Kim (28)
Charl Schwartzel (37)
Francesco Molinari (46)
Simon Dyson (54)
Justin Leonard (58)
Stephen Ames (63)

From this list of nine athletes I’m choosing six who I think have a chance at bringing home the title and why:

Paul Casey
Paul reached the final match last year only to lose to Geoff Ogilvy. After nursing a rib injury for the second half of last year Paul is anxious to get back to his winning ways, and no better place to start than where he left off at last year’s event.

Stewart Cink
Stewart finished third last year and second in 2008. He gained much confidence last year when he won the Open Championship, and perhaps 2010 is the year he takes home his first World Match Play title.

Anthony Kim
Anthony has been yearning to get back to the wining form he showed in 2008. His performance on the last two Ryder Cup and President’s Cup teams showed how successful he can be in the match play format.

Charl Schwartzel
Charl is off to a fine start in 2010 with two wins and a second place finish on the European Tour. He is currently #1 on the European Tour Order of Merit, and if his continues this week he could walk away with the trophy.

Francesco Molinari
Francesco won the Omega Mission Hills World Cup last year with brother Eduardo, the last event on 2009 European Tour schedule. He had seven top ten finishes in 2009, two of which were second place, and he made the cut in three of the four majors last year. Perhaps this year’s Match Play will be where he gets his first individual title on U.S soil.

Simon Dyson
Simon won twice on the European Tour in 2009, however this is his first WGC Match Play appearance. He usually plays well in major events, so maybe he can come out of the blocks with a win in his first try.

No matter who is the last man standing on Sunday, it is sure to be an entertaining five days of match play golf. And I think the odds are good that it will be a Nike Golf athlete holding the trophy on Sunday evening.

Ah, this is one of my favourite times of the year. I got my chocolate fill from Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl Sunday is still relevant and March Madness is right around the corner. While Sunday was a beautiful day, filled with a Canadian gold medal and my boy, Dustin “DJ” Johnson, locked up a win at Pebble Beach, I couldn’t stop thinking about my bracket.

Download a PDF of the official bracket here >>

The WGC Accenture Match Play Championship is one of my favourite tournaments of the year. Filling out my bracket for this event is more enjoyable than that of the NCAA tournament. I don’t care that Tiger and Phil aren’t playing… I don’t care about the groove rule. I care about the best players on the planet coming together and the European boys getting a chance to shine on North American soil for the first time this year.

The beasts of the European Tour scream consistency. Westwood, McIlroy, Karlsson, Jiminez and Karlsson are always at the top of the leaderboard and there’s so much talent over there.

For Nike Golf, the top players are as follows, along with their World Golf Rankings:

• Paul Casey (7)
• Stewart Cink (21)
• Lucas Glover (22)
• Anthony Kim (28)
• Charl Schwartzel (37)
• Francesco Molinari (46)
• Simon Dyson (54)
• Justin Leonard (58)
• Stephen Ames (63)

Last year, 2 of the final 4, were Nike Athletes and the chances are good again this year for a similar story. However, I think the Europeans will dominate. Let’s move on to the Bracket Analysis. My full bracket can be seen below.

Bobby Jones Bracket

When I think of match play, three names pop into my head, two of them being Anthony Kim and Ian Poulter. On the top of the bracket, Fisher and Stricker is a dream matchup and I don’t think they’ll have much trouble advancing. The intrigue here is Stricker vs. Fisher and Poulter vs. AK.

I would be all over an AK/Fisher rematch from the Volvo World Matchplay Championship, but it’s such a tossup. They’re all playing so well and you can’t be mad about any of the resulting matchups. I have to pick one though..so…here it is: (For the record, I would be happiest with an AK vs. Fisher rematch)

Bracket Final: Stricker vs. Poulter

Bracket underdog: AK. He’s not really an underdog in my mind, but I don’t think people are giving him a lot of credit. In my mind, he’s the lowest seed in this bracket with a chance to win it.

Gary Player Bracket

This is a tricky bracket. Westwood is a master, but I don’t think he’s a lock in match play. We all know Watney can get hot, and that could mean trouble for Westwood.  The other matchup that gets me excited is DJ vs. Ogilvy. These are the two of the hottest golfers in my mind and the winner (if they face each other) will win the Bobby Jones Bracket.

Bracket Final: Westwood vs. D. Johnson

Bracket underdog: Ryan Moore. I have him beating Ernie and also Retief. He’s very much underrated and has really improved his play over the past year.

Ben Hogan Bracket

McIlroy is the sexy pick and he should be. The kid is a stud and I expect him to face off against Kaymer or Glover. I’m not expecting much from Sergio and I think Toms can beat him in the first round.

There’s a great potential matchup of Jiminez vs. McIlroy solely based on the Dubai Desert Classic from this year, having McIlroy win it last year.

Bracket final: Glover vs. McIlroy

Bracket underdog: Graeme McDowell. He’s got the game to get past Donald and Allenby, and he would love the chance to take on Rors, his fellow countryman.

Sam Snead Bracket

Paul Casey should be advancing here, at least to the bracket finals. He’s healthy and has been solid so far this year. My concern with this bracket is with the Americans at the top. Potentially, Furyk, Mahan, Cink and O’Hair will move on. Furyk and Cink have the experience and Mahan has been super shaky this year. However, I’m looking for a big rebound from Mahan. I think he needs something to get him going and this is it. I’m not expecting anything from Kenny Perry, either.

Olympic Special: Ames vs. Weir in round 2. I think both of them will lose, but it’s still exciting. After all, I am Canadian.

Bracket Final: Mahan vs. Casey

Bracket underdog: Francesco Molinari. I actually have him meeting up with Casey in round 3. Either of the brothers will do well here. I think Mahan might be a bit of an underdog too because he hasn’t started the year well.
In my final 16, I have 9 European Tourboys (including Rors, even though he’s a PGA player now). Also in that 16 are 5 Nike Golfers.

I don’t really want to see Ogilvy win again. I see this happening a few ways: if Stricker wins he is this year’s Tiger Woods.  If a young stud wins (AK, McIlroy, DJ, O’Hair, Poulter…whoever) it can make golf exciting without Tiger.

I have Rory winning it all, Casey in 2^nd and Poulter in 3^rd. Heartbreak yet again for Paul Casey.

I really feel like Poulter can pull it off against Stricker. I can picture Poulter draining long putts and completely charging up Arizona and torching the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.

In summary, there’s so much talent here that a potential win at The Mayakoba Classic by Duval could be overshadowed. Oh yeah, there’s another prediction.

MY BRACKET: