The magic of match play
Ever get the feeling during the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship that Davis Love III and Geoff Ogilvy should just play through the third-place contest between Zach Johnson and Tom Lehman? Maybe about the time on No. 8 when Johnson was taking a rules seminar while standing in a hazard as Love and Ogilvy watched from the tee?
| That Ogilvy closed the deal for a 3 and 2 victory was impressive, but even more impressive was that he went extra holes a remarkable four times on his way to the title. That's the real story of his victory. |
But the fun thing about match play is that even when it is bad it is good. The golf doesn't have to be first rate for the entertainment value to be high. This format is simply a hoot to watch. The method of this madness transcends the performers on the stage. It is the play that wins here, not the actors.
Sure, it would have been nice if even a single No. 1 seed had made it as far as the semifinals, but the juicy part about match play is that no matter who you put in that format, it is all about pressure. Match play is an examination of what a player is made of. It tests the game, surely, but it also tests the mettle. Only in match play could an Ogilvy take a 3-up lead with six holes to play and it still feel like the pressure is on him, not Love. That Ogilvy closed the deal for a 3 and 2 victory was impressive, but even more impressive was that he went extra holes a remarkable four times on his way to the title. That's the real story of his victory.
One of the other things about match play that is so much fun is that every day, every match, is a final. At the end of the round, someone goes home. Many of the best matches played at the La Costa Resort & Spa were well in advance of the final; in fact, well in advance of the weekend. Of the 14 matches that went extra holes this year, seven were in the first round, including the 23-hole affair in which Colin Montgomerie defeated Niclas Fasth and the 26-hole marathon that ended with Scott Verplank victorious over Lee Westwood. That's golf in which the crucial shot happens way more often than once.
In addition to the 14 matches that went extra holes, another 13 were decided on the 18th green. Saturday's quarterfinal was riveting with Ogilvy needing 19 holes to defeat David Howell and Lehman requiring 21 to get past Chad Campbell. Love took care of Padraig Harrington on the 18th hole and, in what amounted to a runaway this year, Johnson handled Retief Goosen, 3 and 2. There were precious few blowouts, and even in that regard the 9 and 8 romp by Tiger Woods over Stephen Ames was riveting in its total domination, especially since Ames questioned the state of Tiger's game earlier in the week.
And that brings us to another reason why match play is so darn much fun to watch -- and to play. It is personal. In a stroke-play tournament a player is competing against 155 other guys. But in match play it is just me against you. And, like in playoff basketball, where about the fifth time in three days you get an elbow in the ribs from the same opponent, familiarity breeds contempt. The mental game-within-the-game involves blocking out the annoying things your opponent does during the round to get on your nerves.
Sometimes it serves a player well to make his opponent putt a 2-footer early in the match because it might get the guy steaming about the breech of courtesy and not thinking about the shot he has to hit. Conversely, conceding 2-footers early can serve a player well if, at a crucial stage in the match, he makes the other guy putt one and gets that guy's mind racing with doubt and indecision. In match play, I control your ball. And because of that I have enormous access to your brain.
Simply put, match play is the most complete examination of a golfer that tournament play has to offer. A mistake early in the week cannot be made up for later in the week -- as it can in a 72-hole event -- because there may not be a later in the week. Someday, when the story of Woods' career is written, it will likely be noted that the most impressive of his achievements was winning three consecutive U.S. Amateur Championships after he won three consecutive U.S. Junior Championships.
Think about that: Woods won 36 consecutive match-play matches over a six-year period. All you need is one bad day, or to run into one guy with a hot putter, and you are out. Woods faced both of those when his game was sketchy and his opponent was sharp -- and still won. I rank that on a par with just about any achievement in the history of the game. There were many times in that run when Woods simply willed himself to victory.
There will be those who will grouse that the Match Play Championship should be blown up because Woods, Mickelson, Goosen, Vijay Singh and Ernie Els did not make it to the semifinals and that, in fact, only Goosen among them made it to the weekend. But that completely misses the point. This is not about one match, it is about six rounds of matches. The drama here happened in every act, in virtually every scene of a five-day drama. This event is worth embracing. It is about much more than who makes the final, it is about how those competitors handle the pressure of the day.
That is the magic of match play.
Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine.
