AUSTIN, Texas – There is one pool play match up that feels a little less random than the others at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

“It’s going to be interesting, I don’t think this [grouping] was an accident,” Ryan Palmer smiled Tuesday at Austin Country Club.

Palmer is in the same pod as world No. 3 Jon Rahm, who he teamed with to win the 2019 Zurich Classic. The two are scheduled to play on Day 3 to likely determine who from the group advances to the weekend.

“We’re all close friends, we’re playing Zurich again, but it will be interesting to see where we both stand on Friday,” Palmer said. “It could mean something or not, we don’t know. It will be a match I know I will have to play great to beat him.”

Palmer said Rahm doesn’t have any weaknesses in his game, but he learned in ’19 in New Orleans that it’s the Spaniard’s short game that makes him such a dangerous match-play opponent.

“He’s never going to be out of the hole. His short game is probably top 3, easy. Playing with him in New Orleans I saw firsthand how good his wedge game is, his shots around the green,” Palmer said. “He gets upset on the golf course but he’s quick to come back from it. He wears it on the sleeve, but that’s what makes him so good.”