Four third round Accenture match play winners we like

The golf world rarely gets a chance to pick round match-ups and actually see the guys go head-to-head with one winner walking away. Match play does that, and this week at the Accenture we get to see the best in the world take over the desert in Marana in hopes of escaping match after match victorious. Each day we will pick a few matches we like against the spread. We continue with the third round with the odds via our buddies at Golfodds.com.

Favorites this week — 5-1
Underdogs this week — 2-2

Graeme McDowell (-130) over Shane Lowry — It’s been a really fun run for Lowry, the 64th ranked player in this week’s field, and he shellacked Carl Pettersson on Friday to advance to the third round, but I feel like his Cinderella story ends here with McDowell. Graeme had just one over par hole all day in his tough match against Alexander Noren (who smashed Dustin Johnson in his first round) and I think this is the guy to watch if you’re picking someone to make it deep with all the big names getting dropped early.

Jason Day (-105) over Bubba Watson — Bubba was shaky late in his win over Jim Furyk, and while he did survive, I didn’t like what I saw when he had to a chance to close out his match before extra holes and then on the first extra hole. Day on the other hand made a clutch birdie on his first extra hole to take out sneaky Russell Henley, and he seems like he’s back to 2011 form and not whatever happened last season.

Robert Garrigus (-125) over Fredrik Jacobson — One thing I currently like about Garrigus at Dove Mountain — he continues to get off to a hot start and put the pressure on his opponent (he’s 3-under on the first two holes this week in just two matches), and he has as much confidence as anyone in the field. Garrigus took out Louis Oosthuizen in what looked like routine fashion on Friday and I see that continuing with Jacobson on Saturday.

Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (+120) over Webb Simpson — Simpson isn’t playing particularly well this week, he’s just running into guys that aren’t on their game. Fernandez-Castano, on the other hand, played his 13 holes against Charles Howell III on Friday 5-under without a bogey, and it seems he’s comfortable in this format. This is my upset pick for Saturday.

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo! Sports