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The Loop

Have you filled out your WGC bracket yet?

February 21, 2011

The NCAA's March Madness may be weeks away, but in the meantime, you can get your bracket fix courtesy of the PGA Tour.

Tournament brackets for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship have been released by pgatour.com and just looking at the matchups and potential matches is exciting. How about the Day 1 pairings of Steve Stricker vs. 17-year-old Italian phenom Matteo Manassero and Padraig Harrington vs. Geoff Ogilvy? What about a potential second-round match of Phil Mickelson vs. Rickie Fowler or Dustin Johnson vs. Bubba Watson?

The 13th edition of the unpredictable event starts Wednesday at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Ariz. And as the only match-play event of the PGA Tour season, this tournament draws plenty of attention (at least until it produces a championship match of Kevin Sutherland and Mike McCarron like it did in 2002). It also features one of the strongest fields of the year with only the top 64 players in the world ranking as of Feb. 14 qualifying. And barring no withdrawals, it will mark the first time since the 2009 Doral event that all of the top 50 players will tee it up in the same event.

This year features other intriguing storylines as well. Can Tiger Woods, the only three-time winner of this event, regain that intimidating presence and make another deep run? Will defending champion Ian Poulter get back on track after a rough start to 2011? Or will he be too involved in a Twitter battle with first-round opponent Stewart Cink?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on how this week will play out. Before you start ripping up those brackets, of course.

-- Alex Myers

Follow on Twitter: @AlexMyers3