The average guy who pays $35 (or $45 or $55) to watch the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship doesn't know, or care, if it's match play, medal play or a four-man, alternate-shot scramble.
This is a town that daily put 25,000 people on the turf to watch Gabriel Hjertstedt and Frank Lickliter III win the old Tucson Open. It is a community that celebrated the PGA Tour for 60 years, at the downtown muni courses and at the high-roller resort courses.
We don't quibble if a winning score is "3 and 1" even if we're not exactly sure what it means. When the golfers play, we pay.
About all we ask (except for the rain-and-cold thing) is that when we drive 20 miles, catch a shuttle and then tromp a half-mile into the desert to watch the PGA Tour, is to actually be able to see a recognizable golfer.
Alas, the Match Play format has its flaws. In 2008, Tiger Woods crushed Stewart Cink to win the title 8-7, ending the match at the 11th green. Thousands of people who had paid hundreds of dollars to occupy party tents on the 12th and 13th holes didn't get a glimpse of Tiger in that concluding round.
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Their Sunday afternoon ticket enabled them to see consolation finalists Justin Leonard and Henrik Stenson.
That's it. Two golfers came within their vision.
This front-loaded event is colossal on Wednesday, glorious on Thursday and absorbing on Friday. But as the field narrows from 64 to 32 to 16 and then, to a bare Elite Eight on Saturday, the party slows. It's like the day after Christmas.
There has yet to be a big crescendo, or a minicrescendo. After four years in Marana, the championship final has finished at the 17th, 11th, 15th and 16th holes. Most of the drama has been on a weekday.
Two things: This is a superb golf tournament. Its field of 64 golfers is matchless. But the finish often has been anticlimatic - not like Mark Wilson staving off Jason Dufner to win the Waste Management Phoenix Open - because 62 of the world's 64 best golfers have been eliminated by Saturday night.
That will change this year because the 36-hole finale has been shaved to 18, meaning there will be a final field of four Sunday morning.
That's wonderful. Here are four ways to maintain even more star power on the weekend:
1. Adopt the old LPGA-like match-play format.
Here's how it works: Start with 64 golfers on Wednesday, reduced to 32 Thursday and 16 on Friday. Then put the 16 remaining golfers into a medal-play format, cutting six from the field after Friday's play.
That leaves you with 10 players for the weekend. Make it a straight 36-hole, lowest composite score wins.
That would create five twosomes for Saturday and Sunday. Drama and star power everywhere. But what are the chances the staid PGA Tour and the starchy World Golf Championship people buy it?
Match Play isn't sacred. It's not the U.S. Open. It is a made-for-TV event. Why not go for drama over purity?
2. Give the top eight seeds byes through a round or two. That's how it was done in the initial Seiko-Tucson Match Play Championships in 1984.
Benefit: It would likely preserve Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Lee Westwood to the weekend yet, because the overall field is so strong, not compromise the Wednesday-Thursday action.
Flaw: The other 56 players might whine. In 1984, Craig Stadler, Bob Gilder and J.C. Snead all were fined after criticizing the byes format, won by Tom Watson, who had to play but two rounds.
3. Reset the tournament to a Thursday start.
That way 64 golfers would launch Thursday, 32 on Friday. Saturday would require two sessions, reducing the field to eight and four. It would make Saturday a rousing, all-day affair.
Sunday would again require 36 holes for the two finalists. Hey, golf isn't heavy lifting. And the winner gets $1.4 million. Go for it.
4. Double-elimination.
It would sometimes be confusing, but there would be more golf on Saturday and Sunday. Who doesn't want that?
Unless you are a Golf Channel devotee, you are often as confused by the Ryder Cup format as you were by some of your seventh grade algebra classes.
Double-elimination is a plus for the viewer/ticket-buyer. And if Tiger gets bumped off early by someone like Nick O'Hern, there's a chance for Tiger to storm through the consolation bracket.
The Match Play Championship needs a change. Not much. A tweak. Some byes, perhaps. Or double-elimination. Or a later start. Or a modified, match-and-medal play format.
You can thank me later.
Contact Greg Hansen at 573-4362 or ghansen@azstarnet.com
