There was a huge amount of tension in the air down in Austin, Texas, to begin this week and it is was wrong kind.
Every major news outlet led broadcasts with the horrific string of bombings around the city that have claimed two lives and injured two other people.
The last incident came at a FedEx facility outside San Antonio where a package bound for Austin exploded. Fortunately, only one person suffered minor injuries.
So yes, there was a tense atmosphere in Austin.
Now the city can breathe a sigh of relief — a big one. A huge manhunt involving every federal, state and city entity came through Tuesday night and a suspect was chased down. He eventually blew himself up in a car rather than be apprehended.
The investigation will be ongoing, they’re not identifying the suspect, they don’t know the motives.
Okay, now that we have the important stuff covered, here’s what things are looking like as far as the ballyhooed WGC Match Play goes.
While the top four players in the world snubbed their chance to pay tribute to the great Arnold Palmer last week, they’re all in town for this PGA Tour version of March Madness although we’ll side with Henrik Stenson who does’t regard this as real match play thanks to the fact they’ve created all these nifty little “groups” to play some round robin to determine the hotter players.
Last year Dustin Johnson was in the midst of an incredible run that made him the overwhelming favorite to win The Masters. He never trailed in a single match and beat Jon Rahm to win the title and further cemented his favorite status for The Masters.
DJ. is back, as is Rahm along with No. 2 Justin Thomas and No. 4 Jordan Spieth.
Of those guys, Spieth has to fall into that “most likely to get beat early” category thanks to the fact that he’s been playing horribly the last few weeks.
Adding to the intrigue is Rory McIlroy, who has re-entered the top 10, checking in at No. 7 after his beyond-impressive win last Sunday at Bay Hill.
Thank-you Brad Faxon.
So this match-play bunk starts Wednesday. D.J. goes up against Bernd Wiesberger from the European Tour, J.T. takes on Luke List, Rahm’s in there with Keegan Bradley and Jordy’s up against Charl Schwartzel.
For the record, Rory goes against Peter Uihlein.
Tough to get excited about all of this when there are more serious issues plaguing Austin.
Seriously, the authorities need to find out who is responsible for those bombing.
And the PGA Tour might want to tell its guys that security will be a lot more intense this week.
