As always, match play delivers. The last two weeks have been exhilarating, even for fans who are not involved as participating teams. It started with a thrilling finish to the Walker Cup – down to the last match on the 18th hole – and then the brilliant European win in the Solheim Cup.
LIV Golf did embrace the team format, but it wasn’t exactly match play in a majority of their tournaments. And yet, with all four scores counting towards the team score, we had some rollicking tournaments with momentum shifting with every shot. The teams didn’t have a clear definition early on, and it is a pity the first iteration of the League folded just as fans were accepting it.
Launched last year with the first edition in February with six teams, 72 The League delivered all the excitement it promised. 72 The League is a 100 per cent team match play event that includes foursomes, fourballs and singles. I’d say bring on the Presidents Cup (next week at Medinah Country Club), but the International team has proved in the past that they are no match for the United States. It will have to be another Miracle at Medinah if they were to reverse that trend. Three team match play events in four weeks, and coming right on the heels of the announcement by the PGA Tour that they will be changing the format of the Tour Championship to a two-week match play event, is great news for the real golf fans. Team match play adds another layer of sophistication to it all. It gets the crowd involved. It just ratchets up the pressure on players, who are no longer playing for themselves. It calls for numerous strategies – whom to pair together, the order of play, which players to sit out… It’s fascinating. It’s a matter of pride that the domestic DP World-PGTI Tour became the first official Tour in the world to adopt a team match play event as part of its calendar. It is time this becomes a norm on each Tour. The Indian Premier Golf League (IGPL) will also use a similar team/franchise format and include an individual element. The closest we come to team match play on the regular PGA Tour schedule is the Zurich Classic, and the Dow Championship on the LPGA. They always throw up some outstanding pairings – like Zurich winners brothers Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick this year, or Aaron Rai and Sahith Theegala with their Indian roots.
