The field for Wednesday’s 2023 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play has been set and the story is about who isn’t in rather than who is.
It was expected that several LIV Golf players would be eligible for the field, but they have been axed from the final list.
64 of the top 77 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are pencilled in to compete at Austin Country Club for the final playing of the Match Play event.
World number five and Open champion Cameron Smith, Jaoquin Niemann, Abraham Ancer, Thomas Pieters, Mito Pereira, Harold Varner III and Dustin Johnson could all have been eligible to compete given the event is not solely sanctioned by the PGA Tour where they are suspended from playing.
Johnson would have been given a high seeding meaning his path to the latter stages could have culminated in him taking some big name scalps along the way.
The star-studded field includes eight of the top-10 ranked players in the OWGR: Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Xander Schauffele, Will Zalatoris and Viktor Hovland. Other notables returning to Austin include 13-time PGA TOUR winner Jordan Spieth, and past champions Billy Horschel, Kevin Kisner and Jason Day.
Final seeds for the 64-player field will be determined based on the Official World Golf Ranking as of Monday, March 20.
Justin Thomas and Justin Rose also qualified but have not committed to the event.
McIlroy will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing missed cut at the PLAYERS Championship as he tees it up for the final time before the Masters.
Final field HERE
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