A Great Format for A Great Game

Filed in archive Golf Wanderings on February 27, 2007

Courtesy: AP Photo

I have always liked matchplay golf and watching the World Golf Matchplay final on Sunday reminded me of why.

Golf has always been about the golfer against the golf course. And the way most professional tournaments are structured, that's what happens: a field of golfers competes against the course and the player with the best score wins.

Of course, there is often drama down the final holes when two or more pros are within several shots of each other for the victory. The drama is heightened if the tournament is one of golf's majors.

But matchplay golf puts everything on the line from the opening tee shots on the opening hole.

Matchplay says "show me what you've got every time you hit the ball". That was made crystal clear when Henrik Stenson stuck his tee shot within two feet of the cup on the 34th hole (I think) on Sunday. Geoff Ogilvy, down two, needed to "match" him. And he did, putting his own tee shot within 4 feet of the hole.

That was exciting to watch.

The format is the favorite of amateur tournaments around the world. Tiger won his US Amateurs by mastering the matchplay format (hasn't worked as well for him in Ryder Cup play, though).

Many regional amateur champions have won with the very same format.

And I think it's a helluva lot of fun when you're out with your friends playing 18.

I can remember a simple bet I had going with a friend of mine, Keith Sandy, many years ago.

There were three of us playing but Mike Kramer wisely decided to abstain from the gambling.

Our round came down to the final two holes, a par 4 with a two-tiered green and a long, finishing par 5, dogleg right.

Our bet was a dime a hole (big spenders, us). But it wasn't the money that urged us to play our best shots. It was the format.

We were both on the 17th green in regulation (a miracle for me) and the hole was halved.

Keith, a tall guy with an enormous swing arc, striped a monster drive on the 500 yard, par 5, ripping the fairway neatly in two. Talk about excelling under pressure.

I scudded my tee shot down the tree line on the right, my ball coming to rest on some hardpan.

Lo and behold, I hit a fair two-iron from that hardpan to clear the corner of the dogleg and leave a decent approach into the green (you should see what I'll do for a quarter...).

Keith chipped his third nicely onto the green. I chili-dipped my third into the bunker and spent another two shots trying to get out. Typical.

That effectively ended the contest but it was a blast to be able to play head to head and have to deal with the pressure of every shot that comes with the matchplay format.

Golf can be played so many different ways, can't it?

Keith succumbed to leukemia a number of years ago, at the age of 43.

But that round of golf on a hot summer day will live in my memory forever.

Thanks, mate.