Not a fan of the WGC Match Play.
Sorry, just not.
Don’t mistake this for anything akin to the NCAA basketball tournament. There’s so much on the line in the world of hoops — lose and you’re out. Upset-city baby!
Meanwhile down in Austin, we’ve got a watered-down version of match play with those 16 nifty “groups” that basically make sure everyone gets three matches before it actually turns into do-or-die match play.
The major appeal is that you have the top 64 players in the world showing up at Austin Country Club. The non-appeal is that by Sunday, most everyone is gone.
One of the worst viewing situations is two matches — the finals and that oh-so-stupid “consolation” match to determine who finishes third and fourth. Wow, that’s can’t miss viewing, for sure.
Bubba Watson won this last year and even Bubba admits he’s not a fan of match play.
“I vote every year not to have match play because I feel like I have a better chance in 72 holes than I do in individual (matches),” Watson said last week at the Valspar. “Because we have seen every year a guy shoot in the 60s and lose, and then we see a guy shoot in the 70s and win. And it’s like, wait a second, how fair is this?”
Okay, basically golf isn’t designed to be “fair” as a game in general but Bubba is right when it comes to match play. You’ll never know if a guy who lost a match, could have had a 62 or 63 in him the next day that would have vaulted him way up the leaderboard in a stroke play event. You’ve seen it more often than not in the professional game.
Match play works great in amateur golf because basically no one’s watching it on television.
Bubba also downplayed his ability to come anywhere near repeating in Austin this week.
“Don’t get me wrong, if I win the match play again, it would be a miracle. But it would be awesome, I would accept it,” Watson said. “But we’re just looking forward, six months from now and see if we have improved. And if that means throwing in a win here or there, great. But we’re just trying to improve and get more consistent so we have chances on Sundays instead of last place.”
Bubba is ranked high enough this go-round (15th) that he’s the top player in his four-man pod that includes slump-ridden Jordan Spieth, Billy Horschel and spunky Kevin Na.
If you want to know why most will take a look at this you need to simply look at Group 13 where lucky No. 13, Eldrick Woods, is the top guy in that four-man pod that includes Patrick Cantlay, Brandt Snedeker and rookie Aaron Wise. Tiger will take on Wise in his first match. Look out for young Mr. Cantlay in this group.
There’s nothing scientific to the groupings. It’s strictly done by world rankings No. 1 Dustin Johnson through No. 64 Luke List.
There is perhaps an even more important task for those players ranked No. 51 through No. 64. You see, there’s that tournament next month in Augusta, Ga., that has a lot of appeal in the world of sports and if you’re in the world’s top 50 — you’re in. That’s the top 50 as of the end of this week. So the guys who are close, starting with No. 51 Andrew Putnam, have a lot at stake.
So yes, you can fill out your brackets if you want.
We won’t.
It’s just not that big of a deal.
