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MATCH PLAY
Golf ’ s ‘ Ugly Duckling ?’
espite being the nearest thing in golf to handto-hand combat , manoa-mano , head-to-head competition , match play , considered by many to be the purest form of competitive golf performed week-in , weekout by recreational players on golf courses around the world , the format has fallen out of favour with event organizers , sponsors and especially the media in preference for the more predictable format of stroke play . But , with 72-hole professional stroke play tournaments the world over almost every week of the year , this more tried-and-tested format has become tiresome , foreseeable and tedious , with even the Olympic Games golf tournament following suit , bucking the winner-takes-all knock-out trend of other Olympic sports such as tennis and boxing .
Back in the day , when your Bunker Mentality correspondent was a mere slip of a lad , other than the Open Championship , the highlight of the gol�ng year was the World Match Play Championship , which heralded the arrival of autumn and signaled the beginning of the end of the golf season . Staged at the world-famous Wentworth Club near London , the World Match Play Championship , the brainchild of the late Mark H McCormack , which he used – some might say ‘ exploited ’ - as a vehicle for small stable of world-class players , media interests , premium sponsors and event organizers , the early business model that is today International Management Group ( IMG ), the most dominant force in global sport .
Played in early October on the infamous Burma Road , Wentworth ’ s renowned West Course , redolent with early-morning mist , dew on the greens and a riot of autumnal colours on the trees , McCormack ’ s World Match Play Championship was THE business , a sporting institution , an occasion as much as an event , live on TV in the freeto-air era , compulsive viewing as the best in the business went head-to-head , winnertakes-all , no second chances . Launched in 1964 , the late , great Arnold Palmer lifted the inaugural crown 2 & 1 against home favourite Neil Coles , earning the £ 5,000 �rst prize out of a total purse of £ 16,000 , Arnie , Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus – the BIG three – sharing seven of the �rst eight titles , as sponsors such as Rolex , Piccadilly , Toyota , Colgate and even Japanese ‘ Scotch ’ whisky brand Suntory queued-up , as did 10-000-plus galleries each and every day to witness the unfolding drama of raw , competitive match play golf . Avoiding a self-indulgent stroll down memory lane , the World Match Play Championship was the best in the business , appealing to – and being won by – the best in the business , its roll-of-honour including Seve Ballesteros , Greg Norman , Nick Faldo , Sandy Lyle ,
Vijay Singh , Ian Woosnam , all ‘ Major ’ champions , one man , Ernie Els , a resident on the Wentworth estate taking the title on no fewer than seven occasions , a veritable . ‘ Who ’ s Who ’ of men ’ s professional golf .
Not even a ranking event on the European Tour or Of�cial World Golf Ranking ( OWGR ) until 2004 , the stars still came out to play , but by the time HSBC took over as title sponsor from tech giant Cisco in 2003 , the jewel in McCormack ’ s crown had begun to lose some of its lustre . Much of the top talent preferred to remain stateside , playing stroke play event after stroke play event , all for the mega-bucks on offer on home US soil , England ’ s Paul Casey becoming the winner of golf ’ s �rstever £ 1m �rst prize when he destroyed 2003 USPGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel 10 & 8 .
And therein lay the beginning of the end of top-class match play golf ; broadcasters left with hours of airtime to �ll following an untimely victory just after half-time , TV executives preferring the near-certainty of a timely conclusion to each day ’ s play , notwithstanding the extended – and equally unpredictable – airtime required for a sudden-death stroke play play-off .
Having arrived with a bang , McCormack ’ s match play , now in enforced hibernation but still owned and managed by his IMG empire long after his untimely death in 2003 , went out with a whimper , failing to take place at all in 2008 and 2010 under Volvo ’ s title sponsorship , the event that had Wentworth in its DNA shunted around unlikely destinations like Bulgaria , less-than-stellar champions such as Ross Fisher , Nicholas Colsaerts and Mikko Ilonen claiming a crown once the exclusive preserve , not of capable journeymen professionals , but the world ’ s �nest golfers , aristocracy and royalty indeed .
The event ’ s ultimate demise in 2014 , by which time it had , ironically , returned to south east England , to the London Club was long overdue , overshadowed by the WGC Match Play on the PGA TOUR , the fact that Tiger Woods only played the Wentworth event once in his career , in 2006 , and only then when offered an appearance fee from his then IMG agents worth more than the �rst prize itself , telling its own tale on an event in terminal decline . McCormack ’ s match play wasn ’ t helped by the arrival of the rival WGC Match Play in 1999 ; one of four big money WGC events – the prize fund for the inaugural event was US $ 5m , of which the champion Jeff Maggart earned US $ 1m and now offers a US $ 10m purse with 2018 champion Bubba Watson winning US $ 1.7m – even this version of golf ’ s hand-to-hand combat has failed to capture the imagination of the players , venues , of which it has had seven to date , including an Australian sojourn in 2001 , TV executives and their audiences .
42 G o l f P l u s MAY 2018