The attractive Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, designed by Tom Fazio and built by Steve Wynn in 1990, a course that has been the venue for the famous The Match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in 2018 or the CJ Cup of the PGA Tour in 2020, among other relevant events, will be the venue this week, from Wednesday to Sunday, for the fourth edition of the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. Or what is the same, the tournament known until now as Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play, which changes sponsor.
This is, without a doubt, an important date on the LPGA calendar. Not only because of its game format, different from the rest of the events and which includes a novelty in this 2024 edition, but also because of its large prize pool, which reaches two million dollars, 30% more than a year ago, with 300,000 dollars for the winner, with a reduced ‘field’ of only 96 participants. A list of players in which two Spaniards appear: Carlota Ciganda and Azahara Muñoz.
The Navarrese golfer comes from achieving a brilliant tied third place in the Ford Championship played last week in Gilbert, Arizona, and will continue with the tireless search for her third title on the American women’s tour, after the two victories she achieved in 2016. The Malaga woman, for her part, saw how her great tournament start at the Seville Golf and Country Club a few days ago was truncated with a final round of 75 strokes, when she was fighting for the top places.
For Azahara, this Match Play format brings back very good memories. In the Sybase Match Play Championship, a former tournament with a similar game mode on the tour, she achieved in 2012 what is so far her only victory on the LPGA. Something she will try to repeat this week despite the high competition, with the three previous winners of this event on the field, Pajaree Anannarukarn, Eun Hee Ji and Ally Ewing, two winners of this year’s tournaments on the circuit, Lydia Ko, who continues to seek the victory that would allow her to enter the Hall of Fame, and Nelly Korda, currently the world’s number one, or names like Brittany Lincicome, Celine Boutier, Minjee Lee, Alllisen Corpuz, Ayaka Furue, Brooke Henderson, Megan Khang, Rose Zhang, among many others.
In the first three editions of this Match Play, between 2021 and 2023, 64 players were divided into 16 groups according to their classification in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. After three rounds, the winners of each group moved on to the round of 16, in search of the quarterfinals, the semifinals and the final. In this 2024, the organization of the tournament is different, starting with the number of participants, which rises to 96.
On Wednesday, April 3 and Thursday, April 4, the game format will be stroke play, as if it were any other tournament on the LPGA calendar. After those first 36 holes there will be a cut with the 65 best players and tied. On Friday, April 5, another stroke play round will be played and after it, the top eight will move on to the knockout rounds. On Saturday morning, the quarterfinals will be played, in the afternoon the semifinals will be played, and on Sunday, the draw to know the first positions, in individual knockout duels, and the grand final, the challenge of Carlota and Azahara.
Pajaree Anannarukarn, who survived very high temperatures a year ago to achieve her second victory on the LPGA, will try to defend the title successfully after winning seven matches in five days in the 2023 edition, including the final against Ayaka Furue, to whom she beat 3 and 1. And Angel Yin will debut in this 2024 tournament after three months out due to an injury that forced her to withdraw from the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, a tournament that inaugurated the season. Many attractions for the last chance to access the first major of the season, the Chevron Championship, in two weeks in Houston.
