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I am a great fan of matchplay golf and I think that there should be more of it on tour, but given the simplicity and greatness of this event when it was played at Wentworth, I find the new format a bit over complicated and unnecessary.
I can understand why it is the way it is, they have a stong list of demands from all sides. They want the top players involved, so that rules out too much 36 hole golf and the possiblity of them going home after one round on Thursday. They want as many players involved as possible, hence the group system, and they need to accomodate a qualifying system so that it can count toward the Race to Dubai whilst still compensating for sponsors invites.
I think the one thing that gets forgotten is the spectators. The beauty of original event was the depth of quality of the field, it didn't really matter from a spectators point of view if a top player got sent home on Thursday because they invariably were beaten by another top player. Similarly the same could be said of the WGC Matchplay as there are so many competitors that it's inevitable that atleast some of the higher ranked players will make it to the later stages, plus it is fun to support the underdog.
I think essentially what I am saying is that an event that should be a bit of a spectacle has become a bit complicated and in effect has lost it's identity a bit. It's too busy trying to please everyone. I think they could have achieved the same objectives by either having fewer but bigger groups or not entering the higher ranked players until Friday, like they used to at Wentworth. I know both of these issues have drawbacks too, but atleast they don't leave spectators without a clue of how the draw is going to plan out.
Rant over :S Anybody else agree or am i missing the point completely?
I can understand why it is the way it is, they have a stong list of demands from all sides. They want the top players involved, so that rules out too much 36 hole golf and the possiblity of them going home after one round on Thursday. They want as many players involved as possible, hence the group system, and they need to accomodate a qualifying system so that it can count toward the Race to Dubai whilst still compensating for sponsors invites.
I think the one thing that gets forgotten is the spectators. The beauty of original event was the depth of quality of the field, it didn't really matter from a spectators point of view if a top player got sent home on Thursday because they invariably were beaten by another top player. Similarly the same could be said of the WGC Matchplay as there are so many competitors that it's inevitable that atleast some of the higher ranked players will make it to the later stages, plus it is fun to support the underdog.
I think essentially what I am saying is that an event that should be a bit of a spectacle has become a bit complicated and in effect has lost it's identity a bit. It's too busy trying to please everyone. I think they could have achieved the same objectives by either having fewer but bigger groups or not entering the higher ranked players until Friday, like they used to at Wentworth. I know both of these issues have drawbacks too, but atleast they don't leave spectators without a clue of how the draw is going to plan out.
Rant over :S Anybody else agree or am i missing the point completely?
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