Time Is Right to Revamp WGC Match Play Championship

Even before the start of the third round matches, the field of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship had already lost most of its strength. The championship, unique among PGA Tour events for using a match play scoring system, was shaved to 16 golfers on Thursday afternoon and lost a good deal of its star power in the process.

Lack of Star Power

All four number one seeds were sent packing by the end of the first two rounds, and only seven of the 16 players who carry a top four seed beside their names were still at the course on Friday morning. While fans love upsets in the early rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, golf fans with tickets to this weekend’s rounds are likely to be less enthusiastic about watching Harris English than they would have been to see Rory McIlroy, who dropped his second round match to English in 19 holes.

For all of the excitement match play can generate, fans still want to watch the stars on the weekend. This year’s Match Play Championship already took a hit when three of the world’s top four golfers, Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, and Phil Mickelson, opted not to compete. After the majority of the top seeds had been eliminated in the first two rounds at Dove Mountain, the tournament hardly had the feel of a World Golf Championship event, despite being one of only four events which were available with the current Direct TV offer of expanded, live weekend coverage, including the PGA TOUR Experience with features like Launch Pad, an analytical view of tee shots and slow motion swing breakdowns, as well as a four-in-one screen Mix Channel.

New Sponsor = New Site?

Accenture is in the final year of its contract as the sponsor of the WGC event, which means that the tournament is likely going to be hosted outside of Arizona in 2015. The event has served as the final leg of the PGA TOUR’s west coast swing for many years but is hampered by the WGC-Cadillac Championship’s placement on the calendar only two weeks later. If the International Federation of PGA Tours wants to create more excitement for the four WGC events, the wise move may be to move the event to another spot on the calendar.

Currently, three of the four WGC events are staged annually in the United States. Only the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament puts American players in a foreign locale, played annually at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shenzhen, China. To increase the global reach of these marquee events, one potential option is to move the Match Play Championship to a location in the Southern Hemisphere. Since the spring and summer months are dominated by the major tournaments in the US and Great Britain, the event could be enhanced by moving to a December or January date, which would be in the middle of the summer in South America, South Africa or Australia. Ultimately, the new sponsor will have the most input on the new location, but a large international corporation may be amenable to sponsoring a tournament with a truly global reach.

Rethinking the Match Play Format

While the event is likely moving to a new location and a new date, this is the perfect opportunity to address the imperfections that exist in the match play format as well. Having the world’s top golfers travel across the globe can be difficult if they may be sent packing after less than 18 holes, which happened to Woods and Mickelson in 2002. A golfer may be better than almost every player, but he will still be eliminated if his playing partner has a better round. While this generates the excitement of a match play competition, no one benefits when the stars are eliminated before the weekend crowd and TV audience is able to enjoy the action.

One potential change that has generated discussion this week is a move to a round-robin format for the first round similar to that used in the European PGA Tour’s Volvo World Match Play Championship. Golfers would be placed in groups of four and each golfer would compete in three separate match play rounds against another member of the group. The group winners would then advance to the quarterfinals on the weekend. Another option would be to stage the opening round as a 36-hole threesome over the first two days and use Irish match play rules. In Irish match play rules, a player is awarded two points for winning a hole outright, and one point for sharing the lead on a hole. The top one or two golfers in each group could then move on to the next round.

One thing is certain is that change is coming for next year’s WGC Match Play Championship. With the world’s top players will be watching the action on television this year, the changes need to be significant in order to ensure that this unique event on the PGA TOUR calendar last well into the future.

(Cover Photo Credit)