MP-PM

Which stands for Match Play Post-Mortem...

A couple of items hit the airwaves and made me revisit my thinking on the recently deceased WGC Accenture Match Play.

First, Shackelford tipped me off to this Talek Harris item regarding HSBC's WGC event.  Here's the grab

HSBC's sponsorship chief has urged Tiger Woods to respect the bank's large investment by playing at this year's WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai instead of "meaningless... money-making opportunities".

Pot meet kettle.....if the WGC's weren't meaningless money grabs, why would Tiger and others play in them.

And as Shack noted here, this ain't exactly the best way to appeal to the Striped One, but that's way down on my list of issues.

And Shack does provide the Coup de grâce with this bit:

Meanwhile, HSBC's European Tour stop in Abu Dhabi pays appearance fees and regularly lures players who might otherwise play West Coast Swing events.

So, appearance fees bad unless we're paying them.  Got it.

Next up is this piece by the great Shackelford himself, writing in Golf World:

For all of the International Olympic Committee's issues, it has nimbly moved the Winter Olympic Games forward by maintaining the classic events while rejiggering the competition to include newer, popular hybrid sports such as freestyle skiing, short-track skating and snowboardcross.  Match-play golf needs the same commitment to innovation with serious consideration given to outside-the-box proposals like bringing back the stymie, which was an integral part of match play until it was eliminated from the Rules of Golf in 1952.

Now, anyone who has been along for our ride here knows that I want to be Geoff Shackelford when I grow up, notwithstanding that he appears to be about half my age.  But there are times when we must disagree with our heroes, and this is one of those moments.

The folks who decided to give Vlad the Impaler a Winter Olympics, at a summer resort no less, are probably not the folks to whom we should look for our teachable moments.  Perhaps as a Southern California boy, Geoff can be excused for not being an expert on winter sports, but his history is a bit faulty.

The IOC was not particularly open to the newer sports that he mentions.  On the contrary, they were forced to accommodate them through a combination of flagging interest in the Winter Games and the popularity of the Winter X-Games, which seriously threatened their mandate.  Even now they're way behind those crazy kids....one of the most popular events in freestyle skiing is dual moguls, which you won't find in their Winter Games.

Plus nobody has been a more vocal critic of the Olympic golf format than Geoff, so it seems more than passing strange to suggest that the IOC, in the process of screwing up their involvement with golf, holds the key to salvaging this event.  That said, he had me at Hello just by throwing the stymie into the mix.

One last note before sharing my profound insight.  Butch Harmon chimed in via John Hawkins and had this suggestion:

“Not always that nice [weather-wise] in Vegas, but this is where it should be,” said swing coach Butch Harmon. “Action, baby. Action!” 

No doubt, a legal wagering element could really give the Match Play its own crackling identity, but it’s hard to imagine Camp Ponte Vedra taking such a dangerous leap. Sexy ideas just aren’t the Tour’s style. Besides, there probably isn’t a golf course in Las Vegas suitable for an event of this caliber, and the lack of spectators could make Dove Mountain look like TPC Scottsdale.

“Vegas is the dream city but the weather is too dicey,” said Geoff Shackelford, an author/blogger with an advanced degree in course architecture. “It’s a tie for me between Sherwood [near Los Angeles] and PGA West-Stadium [near Palm Springs]. Both have great risk-reward holes, though Sherwood has less chance of great weather.”

That is such a good idea that it has a less than 0% chance of happening.  No way the Ponte Vedra suits could allow us to have that much fun...wouldn't be prudent.

Now that I've got the drama at fever pitch, here's what I've realized.  The way to save the Match Play is to separate it from the WGC.  The WGC's are their own mess, something I should dissect at a later time. They're dreadfully boring, played at mediocre (read Tiger-approved) venues, and are mostly indistinguishable from other stops on the Tour schedule.  Essentially, they are limited-field, big money grabs for the elite players, often at the expense of the rest of the Tour.  But because of their purses and visibility, they only work if the A-list players support them.

The Match Play, on the other hand, is the revenge of the Tour rabbit, where once they're in the elite 64 they've got their best chance of success.  So to save the Match Play I think we need to divorce it from the WGC.  And let me throw two other thoughts out there.  First, the weakest event on the calendar right now is still the Hope Humana, and one of the best suggestions for a match play venue is the PGA West Stadium Course, which is completely unsuitable for a stroke play event.  So, what say we turn the Hope into a match play event, with the weekend on Golf Channel where a Sunday dud is not fatal, and we'll have a grand old time at least from Wednesday through Friday?  Tiger and the other big names will not join in, but why let those guts ruin our fun?