By:


Luke Kerr-Dineen




The first round of my hair-brained scheme to put different golf swings in a March Madness bracket, and then have voters vote on them by which one they like the best, is in the books. It was an eventful first round with some big upsets and some juicy second round matchups brewing.

Let’s get cracking.

First Round Recap

I’m not going to recap each match, but here’s some takeaways that stood out to me.

  • Tiger Woods won by the largest margin in round 1: 97.3% over Ian Woosnam.
  • David Duval’s victory over Retief Goosen was the closest victory: 50.6% vs. 49.4%
  • Spieth, Rahm, and Garcia (16, 15 and 14 seeds respectively), upset Furyk, Darcy and Norman in the “unique” division of the bracket, sending that region into chaos.
  • Lots of people on social media complained about the various seedings. It’s worth remembering that each golf swing is seeded relative to their side of the bracket. Furyk was a one seed because he was in the “unique” side of the bracket, not because he his swing is better than Tiger Woods’, a two seed in the power division.
  • Also another reminder that not every single golfer can be a one seed. It’s a zero-sum game.
  • A few people asked how Steve Elkington didn’t make the bracket. Congratulations to those people: That was the one golf swing I was very close to including, but left on the cutting room floor. A tough break which underlines who competitive this contest is.
  • Some people asked why Tiger Woods was only a two seed. My logic for that: He had multiple different golf swings over his career, and a reminder that unbelievably, he never led the tour in driving distance over the course of a season! That’s not a slight on Tiger, just a fun fact and why I’m at peace making him a two seed in the power division.
  • Some of the results show signs of recency bias. Mickey Wright losing to Nick Price? Sam Snead losing to Collin Morikawa? Nothing against any of the winners, but come on, people.
  • Remember: We’re voting on our favorite golf swings, not who was the better player. Important distinction.
  • You can re-read the rules, and see all the golf swings from each of the competitors, right here.

Updated Bracket

Swing bracket 4 scaled copy 1

Second Round Matches

**You can watch golf swing videos for each contestant right here**

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Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Director of Service Journalism at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University and in 2017 was named News Media Alliance’s “Rising Star.” His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.