Ten notes to know: April 1st
Justin Ray
1. One year after losing in the final to Bubba Watson, Kevin Kisner defeated Matt Kuchar in the ninth all-American final in WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play history. Kisner is the first player to win the event the year after finishing runner-up.
2. Graeme McDowell won by one shot at the other PGA Tour event held last week, the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic. It marked the fourth consecutive week that a European player has won on the PGA Tour, the first time that has happened in the modern era.
3. Having won ten consecutive matches dating to last year's Ryder Cup, Francesco Molinari looked like the man to beat entering the semifinals on Sunday. However, Molinari made six bogeys in his semifinal loss to Kisner. He made just five in his first five matches combined.
4. American players have now won each of the last six World Golf Championships. U.S. players have now won 42 individual WGC titles, while the rest of the world combined has 28. If you take away Tiger Woods' 18 WGCs, the rest of the planet would lead the Americans, 28 to 24.
5. Woods reached the quarterfinals at match play before losing to Lucas Bjerregaard. Bjerregaard entered the match with 12 career rounds or matches played in World Golf Championships. Woods has won 18 WGC titles.
6. Woods' next stop will be Augusta National, where he is a four-time champion. Woods' last Masters win was in 2005, 14 years ago. The longest gap between sequential Masters victories is just 11 years (Jack Nicklaus, 1975 to 1986, and Ben Crenshaw, 1984 to 1995).
7. In his round-of-16 exit, Rory McIlroy pocketed his seventh top-ten finish on the PGA Tour in 2019. Since 1980, there are only two players to record seven or more top-ten finishes, including a win, on the PGA Tour before April 1 in a PGA Tour season: Tiger Woods in 2000 and Rory McIlroy in 2019.
8. The LPGA kicks off major championship season this week with the ANA Inspiration. Last year's ANA ended in marathon fashion, needing an 8-hole playoff to crown Pernilla Lindberg the champion. It was the longest sudden-death playoff in women's major championship history.
9. Close finishes have become the norm at the ANA Inspiration: 12 of the last 17 years, the tournament has been decided by either 1 stroke or a playoff.
10. Stephen Gallacher picked up his fourth career European Tour victory at the Hero Indian Open despite carding a quadruple-bogey 8 on the 7th hole. Gallacher is the only player in the last 20 years on the European Tour to make an 8 in the final round of a win.