PGA Tour’s decision to stop match play was a mistake. Here’s how to fix it

“Yeah, I just think, I think for right now, for next season’s schedule, it didn’t work. But match play has been a staple out here. It’s been a staple on the DP World Tour. I think that there’s — that will certainly be a consideration as we go forward.” — Jay Monahan, PGA Tour commissioner, March 7 

Consideration? Match play doesn’t want to go to a committee. This is a gimme, to steal a time period from the format. 

Play it. Play it. Play it. Play it. Play it. Play it. Play it! 

Seven sentences. In honor of seven wins by this 12 months’s WGC-Match Play winner, Sam Burns. Play it once more, Sam And rattling, he was good, proper? Three wins in group play. A 2-and-1 win over Patrick Cantlay within the spherical of 16. A 3-and-2 quarterfinals win over Mackenzie Hughes. Sunday was most particular, although. A 21-hole win over Scottie Scheffler — his Tour bestie, no much less — in a shocker within the semifinals. A 6-and-5 finals demolition of Cameron Young, who had dispatched Rory McIlroy earlier within the day. Good stuff.   

And now it’s over, with the Monahan quote above, mentioned throughout the Players Championship, addressing the information of the WGC-Match Play’s demise after this 12 months.

The bracket is busted.

The one-on-one is finished. 

Talk about an upset. March insanity! March disappointment!

“The PGA Tour can’t abandon match play,” tweeted NBC analyst and longtime caddie John Wood, becoming a member of a prolonged refrain of help. “1 week a year. It’s so refreshing & fun to watch,to play,to commentate. I think the players love it, as do the fans. Maybe 1 of the designated events will take a look at it. It will make them stand out from the crowd.Find a way to keep it in.”

Agreed. 

Of course, cash talks right here, and Adam Schupak at Golfweek expertfully reported a few of the ins and outs of the decision to finish the occasion at Austin Country Club. We get it. But let’s get inventive right here, like the electrical format itself. 

Here, then — for your consideration — are seven methods (!) to proceed to play match play on the PGA Tour. 

Keep it as is. Keep it at Austin Country Club. 

The metropolis is nice. There’s barbecue. Who doesn’t like burnt ends? 

And Pete Dye-designed Austin CC — with its scorable holes and drivable par-4s (plural) and water and sand and bushes — suits. Beautiful carnage. 

“Yeah, and I don’t think it would be a favorite course for stroke play,” Jon Rahm mentioned. “But, again, for match play, it really, really, really works.”

Three reallys? Wow. You’d have to preserve it designated to work, however he event expertise is peerless.

Move it to TPC Scottsdale. Make the WM Phoenix Open match play.   

If the priority is cash, the followers will come to TPC Scottsdale. If you’re frightened about having simply 4 gamers on the ultimate day, the followers will nonetheless come to the WM Phoenix Open. 

But primarily right here, No. 16 will need to have match play. Our one suggestion could be to transfer it up within the routing — probably because the eleventh gap — so each match goes by. And let the great instances roll and the booze circulation. 

Move it to tournament-starved areas. Move it to Chambers Bay. Move it to Whistling Straits. 

Same as above. If the difficulty is the underside line, go to the place followers have been saving up. Move match play to tournament-starved areas. 

Chambers Bay? Yes! After the 2015 U.S. Open, it deserves one other shot. 

Whistling Straits! Yes! Another Dye course. Ryder Cup recollections. Spotted Cow beer. 

And on and on. Golf doesn’t want to be performed in simply California, Florida, Texas and the East Coast. 

Move it to the unique. Move it to Bandon Dunes. Move it to Seminole. 

Fans could also be a difficulty right here. But viewership wouldn’t be. There’s your cash. 

Bandon Dunes? Yes! Drone photographs alongside the Pacific? Yes! Trophy presentation at McKee’s? Yes!  

Seminole? Yes! We liked the 2020 occasion there. We liked the 2021 Walker Cup there. Let’s run it again. 

And on and on. If Augusta National can open its doorways, so can another oh-la-la tracks. 

Make a non-elevated event match play. Let’s have a bracket on the John Deere. 

We’ve heard some issues from the non-designated of us. (The Fire Pit Collective wrote a fantastic piece here.) It’s comprehensible: If the celebrities are going to the large occasions, the little man will get misplaced. Here’s the reply: Make your self distinctive. Stand out from the stroke-play sea. 

You listening to this, John Deere Classic?

Rahm could even be in. Earlier within the week, he was requested if he would play a event if it had match play, no matter its designated standing. 

“I most likely would, yeah” he mentioned. “I love match play. Why not? It’s a really fun format, so I probably would, yes.”

Make the Tour Championship match play 

To make this truthful, you’d have to bake in some byes. An extended season deserves some spoils. 

But do you really need to decide your Tour champion?

Make it mano a mano. 

For all the cash. 

32 PGA Tour gamers. And 32 LIV Golf gamers. Match play. 

LOL. Probably not gonna occur.

(Whispers: But you’d watch.)

We’ll finish this with Rahm once more. And this alternate. 

“You talked about how much you love match play. If you were giving a presentation and had to convince people and say this is why we need a match-play event on the calendar every year, what would be the 30-second pitch?”

“That’s not my job. I might solely inform you as a participant, proper? I wouldn’t know how to persuade a sponsor. As a participant, it’s simply a chance to play type of a totally different golf, proper?

“It’s actually the one time all year long in addition to possibly the Ryder Cup the place you’re taking part in actually in opposition to the particular person in entrance of you, which is way more relatable to each sport we play on the planet, which is principally about simply taking part in higher than the crew in entrance.

“Usually it’s very a lot about you minding your individual enterprise and hopefully beating the opposite 150 gamers within the discipline. It’s enjoyable. It’s a lot extra aggressive. You see extra birdies. You see a lot of issues occur.

“Again, one of many belongings you talked about, when you’ve gotten a lot of matches on the market, you see a ton of highlights and a ton of nice issues occurring. When you solely have one or two on the course, I can perceive why it might be a little bit laborious to — as a product, I wouldn’t know how to promote it. I actually can’t inform you.

“I can tell you why I love it so much.”

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his position, he’s answerable for modifying, writing and creating tales throughout the golf area. And when he’s not writing about methods to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native might be taking part in the sport, hitting the ball left, proper and brief, and ingesting a chilly beer to wash away his rating. You can attain out to him about any of those matters — his tales, his recreation or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.