Match Play and Other Mishegoss

I warned you that there would be blood...I just didn't realize it would be my own.  It felt like every high seeded player (or perhaps just the ones I had picked to prevail) were going down, but those with microphones kept insisting that the highest percentage of higher-seeded player were victorious.  Whatever....

• Bracket Forecast - Mostly Red -  The Golfweek bracket contest has some notable shortfalls.  For instance, as of the moment, they tell me I have 0 points and am tied for first.  If only... at one point most of the way through the proceedings, I was in 1,630th place, though a late rally moved me up to 1,068th place.  If Zach keeps playing well, the sky's the limit.  What?  Oh, then good thing I leave for Utah this afternoon.

Best moment had to be this:

Rory's reaction shot is just priceless.  

• Best matches today:
• Rickie v. Jimmy Walker - After missing his last 3 cuts, who guessed that Rickie was on form.  I suspect Butch is a good move for the long-term, but perhaps not against the hottest golfer on the planet.
• Jason Day v. Billy Horschel -  Lots of firepower on display here.  
• Jordan Spieth v. Thomas Bjorn - Beware those old crafty guys...
• Bubba v. Jonas Blixt - Guys like Blixt that can roll it are really dangerous in this format on this kind of golf course.

Like yesterday, there's no shortage of good match-ups, though they don't always turn into good matches.

•  Most Surprising Result - You mean besides Richard Sterne's dismemberment of Zach?  Manassero's ritual sacrifice of Luke Donald was pretty surprising as well.

• Latest Rumors - Apparently there are active discussions of Harding Park as the home for this event.  Shack pleads no in this post, though he may be the only person on the planet less likely to be invited to a dinner party at the Ratcheds Lepetomanes Finchems.  I agree it's not a great match play venue, but unless there's a date change tied to it that's a serious unforced error.  At least a couple of scribes have thrown out Castle Pines as an option, which I like but it again involves a move to the summer.  

• The Glories of Match Play - When you lie with dogs, you end up with fleas... somehow match play has been sullied by its relationship with the PGA Tour.  Shackelford links to and excerpts from this wonderful Bill Fields Golf World piece reminding us of its history and importance in the growth of the game, dubbing it, "Hunting-and-gathering golf."

Here's a smidgen of the historical context:

It has been nearly 290 years since a newspaper -- the Caledonian Mercury, on April 6, 1724 -- first reported the results of one golfer squaring off against another. In this case, it was the Honorable Alexander Elphinstone against Captain John Porteous at Leith Links in Edinburgh in "a solemn match at golf." Elphinstone won the match and the 20-guinea bet. The stakes were higher for the winner five years later at Leith, where he won a duel contested with implements more dangerous than a ball of leather stuffed with goose feathers.

Shack also includes this long excerpt, which I can't resist replicating:

That wasn't the case in the late fall of 1875 at St. Andrews, where four-time British Open champion Young Tom Morris was lured into a six-day, 12-round match for 50 pounds against wealthy 18-year-old English amateur Arthur Molesworth, who was getting three strokes a side.

The cold weather deteriorated from bothersome to brutal as the marathon went on, the links a frozen, snowy mess the morning of the final day when balls painted red had to be used. "Even with [Old Tom Morris'] workmen shoveling and sweeping, greens were unputtable," Kevin Cook writes in Tommy's Honor. "The players chipped on and then chipped their 'putts,' trying to flip their gutties into the hole as if they were stymied." 

Not until the 206th hole did Morris close out his foe, the long, tiring, frosty encounter finally ending when the 24-year-old phenom sank a putt for a 2 on the now-thawed grass at No. 8. Morris would be dead within a month, the victim of an embolism on Christmas Day perhaps hastened by the strain of the match. The stymie left golf for good in 1952, and the PGA Championship became a stroke-play event in 1958. 

These days, 200-hole tussles can only be found in the past. For the very best, match play is a sword fight in a drone world. But thank goodness one-on-one at least occasionally offers a glint of what was.

Ah, the stymie.  Brings a tear to the eye, doesn't it?

• Maximal Cheesecake:  Continuing our long-established policy of providing All the Golf Cheesecake that Fits, submitted for your approval is Kate Aiken:

Better known as Mrs. Thomas Aiken, she pitched in to caddy for her man, who then  proceeded to win the Africa Open.  Let's hope he has some U.S. events on his calendar.

• Rejoicing in the Land -  Via Shackelford and The Irish Golf Desk comes great news, that the 2015 Irish Open is headed to Royal County Down.  Set your DVR's now, just to be safe.  And if we're really lucky, perhaps Thomas Aiken will be in the field.