Maginnes' formula for perfect brackets: A pencil and a coin

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Is Tiger Woods so good your coin has no choice but to pick him?

Sharpen your pencil and get ready. I am about to give you some pearls that will help you pick your brackets for the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship.

A lot of you probably haven't been paying much attention to golf yet this year. But the Accenture Match Play Championship brings it all to the forefront, doesn't it? The mano-y-mano format requires grit, determination and the ability to look another in the eye and take his lunch money. That's why you like match play, isn't it? The fact that more wagers are placed on the Accenture Match Play Championship in Vegas than any other tournament has nothing to do with your affinity for it. Right. Those brackets that you are filling out are obviously for entertainment purposes only.

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There are several logical approaches to filling out brackets. Some people start with a winner and work backwards. In other words, if you think that guy who hasn't played in eight months is going to successfully defend, then go ahead and put him in the winner's spot and work your way back. Then go to the other side of the grid and figure out who he will play in the final. Work that guy through his matches and you are on your way.

Most people start with the first-round matches, though, and try to pick 32 winners. This can be overwhelming. By the time you get to the middle matchups, your mind starts to wander, and you are just filling in names. Did you have Andres Romero beating Retief Goosen last year in an 8 vs. 9 match? Me neither, but in retrospect it was not that great a leap.

Since there are four separate brackets with four No. 1 seeds, there is another possibility. You could fill out each bracket individually, breaking down each match and coming to a final four. Remember that four No. 1s never make it to the final four. Let me repeat, never.

Once you choose your game plan, you are almost there. You will need one other piece of equipment -- a coin, a dart or a hat. The coin is for flipping. The dart is to throw at the brackets. The hat is to stuff the names in individually and then pull them out one at a time. You see, no matter how much you know, how hard you study or how much you break this thing down, you have no chance of filling out your brackets correctly. It just isn't going to happen. During March Madness -- which has the same number of contenders -- one Web site offered $1 million to the person who filled out their brackets 100 percent right. They kept their money.

Here is the deal, though. If you choose a coin, you have to let it work for you. You can't pick Tiger in your first match and then start flipping for matches that you are unsure about. If George Washington says that Brendan Jones is going to take down Tiger Almighty, then you have to go with it. No cheating. Obviously, if you are throwing darts, you have a little more control. However, if you can hit Tiger's name on a printed sheet of paper from eight feet away, you should consider another hobby.

You see, unlike in the NCAA Tournament, there are actually 64 guys in the Accenture Match Play Championship who can win the golf tournament. There are no Mount St. Mary's or James Madisons here. Henrik Stenson, Steve Stricker and Kevin Sutherland all have their names on the trophy. Obviously, these are world-class players who can win at any given time, but don't pretend that you had them winning in your bracket on the years that they won.

Now that you have filled out your brackets, get ready for the most exciting day of golf that isn't a Sunday. Wednesday of the Accenture Match Play Championship is unlike any other and only happens once a year. Thirty-two of the best players in the world will put their clubs in the trunk and head to the airport. The 32 who remain will tee it up again on Thursday morning knowing that half of them will be making the same ignominious exodus at the end of that match.

The Accenture Match Play Championship is only once a year, and that somehow makes it that much more special. It is the only field where a guy can hide early in the week. Someone will advance through the early rounds without playing his best golf. That is the nature of match play.

Of course, there is one guy who won't be able to hide -- even in this format. He will be back for the first time in eight months, and my George Washington says he will win his first match. That's all I am going to give away because I am pretty sure that I have perfect brackets this year -- my 7-year-old helped flip the quarter.