WGC Match Play Just Flat Out Doesn’t Cut It As A Tour Event

Match play works wonderfully for the Ryder Cup.

Works fine for the Presidents Cup.

Works for the Solheim Cup.

Fine enough for the U.S. Amateur.

Match play in basketball is simply captivating at the NCAA basketball tournament.  Lose and you are out, the ultimate pressure cooker.

Match play doesn’t work as a regular PGA Tour or WGC event.

We’re with Henrik Stenson on this one.  It doesn’t work, otherwise, why did they have to tweak the format and give us these 16 confusing groups of four players who will engage for a couple of days in round-robin silliness.  That ain’t match play.

So they’ll get started down in Austin at the Austin Country Club.  Great place, one of America’s hottest cities, the real estate market is going nuts and there’s a ton of night life there.  Oh yes, and don’t forget that little school that makes Austin home — the University of Texas, yeah, Hook ‘Em Horns!

But Henrik Stenson is right, this isn’t match play in its best form.

There’s a reason.

Match play runs a huge risk.

The compelling thing about theses WGC events is that they bring together the top 60 players in the world and let them duke it out for four days to find out who is the best that week, the best will rise over 72 holes.

Match play doesn’t do that.

Pure match play can get rid of your biggest names over the first two days, leaving the spectators who pay a pretty good price for tickets to munch on scraps rather than filet mignon.

Even with this tweaked format that guarantees everyone will be around for at least a couple of days, you still end up without a lot of players on the course on Saturday and just two twosomes on Sunday.  Let’s repeat that — Two twosomes as in four guys and thousands of fans hopefully there.  Face it, you’re not seeing anything up close and you end up watching it on television in a hospitality area if you can afford one.

Doesn’t cut it.

It also eliminates the possibility of someone shooting 72-72-62-64 due to the fact that when you shoot even par early, you are probably going to get beat, perhaps by a lesser player who had one good day then stinks it up the rest of the event.

Stroke play is where it’s at.

That’s why they play stroke play in every major, every meaningful tournament.

The U.S. Amateur used to be stroke play years ago and that basically assured that the best players would win.

Stenson was on to something when he made the best suggestion we’ve heard.

What they need to do is have two days of stroke play then take the 16 low shooters for the match play portion.  That makes a lot more sense.

Another problem is the fact that this is a five-day event for the finalists and the guys who play the totally meaningless “consolation match” to see who finishes third and fourth.  Isn’t that exciting.  “Hey Joe, let’s go out and watch the consolation match so we can see who finishes third!”  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Anyway, you get our drift here.

Regardless of what Stenson or anyone else thinks, this show will start on Wednesday and please, all you announcers, don’t you dare compare this to basketball’s March Madness.  Not even in the same universe.

So Dustin Johnson’s the top seed, let’s see if he can make it to Sunday.

Then there’s everyone’s favorite match play maniac — Patrick Reed.  Yeah, he goes beserk at the Ryder Cup, totally over the top and it works in that crazy format.  But this is a tour event and there’s decorum.  You really don’t want to piss off your fellow competitors who are world-class players, which means you won’t see the Ryder Cup Patrick Reed but some watered down version.

And that’s what this WGC Match Play is.

It’s just a watered-down version of real match play.