Early
on Sunday during the final round of the Tampa Bay Championship 13
players were within 1 shot of the lead and 6 were tied for the lead
but the demanding Copperhead course had its say once more as
contender after contender failed to go low, apart from Boo Weekley,
who came from nowhere to post a score of 8-under in the clubhouse
some 3 hours ahead of the leaders reaching the 18th hole.
The likes of Donald and Garcia were expected to contend and the
veteran Justin Leonard, but it was the winless Kevin Streelman who
produced the goods down the stretch near Clearwater. A superb tee
shot on the par three 13th set up a birdie and another
stunning birdie at the 17th gave him an unlikely 2 shot
lead going to the 72nd and on the verge of his maiden
title. When the pressure was on it was Streelman who showed up and he
nailed his drive up the middle of the uphill 18th hole to
leave himself 132 yards in, and being able to post a five and still
win enabled the North Carolina man to make a straightforward, no fuss
par to take the title against the odds.
Sunday
was the final day of the Tampa Bay Championship but it was also a big
day in American sports, Selection Sunday. The day on which aspiring
college basketball teams find out if they have been selected for
invitation to compete in the NCAA Men's Division 1 Basketball
Tournament, also known as March Madness. The tournament features 68
of the best college basketball teams in the United States following
the regular season where the colleges compete in conferences relating
to their geographical location across the country, and is one of the
most culturally important and highly viewed sports events in all of
American sports. The 2013 tournament begins today and concludes the
weekend prior to The Masters on April 6 and 8 with the Final Four, a
massive event in its own right which will be staged, coincidentally
this year, in the City of Atlanta, Georgia at the 72,000 capacity
Georgia Dome. Fan interaction with March Madness is as high as any
sporting event in the world, with sports fans across the country
filling out their 'bracket' before the tournament begins, predicting
who they think will make it all the way to the National Championship
Match. Many non-basketball fans are drawn into taking an interest in
the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Tournament, in the same way
non-football fans are with the England National Football Team, FA Cup
Final and UEFA Champions League, or non-cricket fans with The Ashes
and World Cup or non-rugby fans with the Lions Tour, Six Nations or
World Cup.
The
NCAA Division 1 Tournament is basically the national play-off for
college Basketball, like the Bowl Games in College Football, the
World Series in Baseball and the Stanley Cup in Ice Hockey, and since
2007 Golf in the United States has had Playoffs but they have been
very slow to make an impact within the worldwide golf community, let
alone out-with of the game. The upcoming “March Madness” got me
thinking about the Playoffs on the PGA Tour, the World Golf
Championships and the European Tour's Race to Dubai Final Series. All
three are in essence trying to achieve the same goal, of bringing the
world's best golfers together for more tournaments each year, making
golf more exciting and more compelling for the fan to tune in each
week with the aim of increasing participation in golf, as well as
being centred around vast sums of money. Despite their best
intentions the major global tours have yet to come up with series of
events or competitions which have matched the majors for compelling
excitement and drawing fans to watch the sport on television in the
same way that golf's four grand slam occasions and the Ryder Cup
does.
Each
February the International Federation of PGA Tours runs the
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and each year the media,
especially in America, refer to March Madness and brackets. Of course
the WGC-Accenture Match Play is a big event within the sport of golf
but it comes nowhere near to competing with March Madness in the eyes
of the American sporting public, and doesn't come close to gaining
the media or fan attention that the major championships or Ryder Cup
receives. I have no idea as to if the PGA Tour even contemplated
using match play for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but they didn't and
because of this they had to develop a contrived points system to
ensure drama and competition to the end and use enormous sums of
money to make their flawed plan work, and 6 years on, it hasn't. If
you asked 100 golfers in the clubhouses of America who won the FedEx
Cup I would estimate 75% would know who hoisted the silver trophy
last September; If I asked the same question in the UK I would expect
perhaps the same number, but ask golfers elsewhere in the world and I
would expect a much much lower percentage of golfers to know the
answer. Ask the same question to the general public and I reckon you
would be lucky to find 10% who know that Brandt Snedeker won the PGA
Tour FedEx Cup in September 2012. And I think you could probably say
the same for the winner of the Race to Dubai, even though it was
World Number One Rory McIlroy.
The
same could be said for the World Golf Championships, great events
though they are they don't have the global focus that the major
championships do and they most likely never will, but a World Golf
Championship might. Yes, one championship featuring the very best
golfers from all over the world, from every tour, to finish the
season each year.
But
this championship would be unlike any other in professional golf.
Look at the Amateur game and you may see two similar championships –
the U.S. Amateur and the Amateur Championships.
312
competitors play two rounds of strokeplay and the best 64 scoring
players qualify for match play which concludes with a 36-hole final,
the championship is played over one week, but the World Golf
Championship would be played over three weeks and every match would
be over 36 holes. Real match play day after day.
A
destination would host the World Golf Championship, with four courses
required to stage golf's greatest and longest grand finale. The 312
players would compete in two rounds of strokeplay over two courses
and then the 64 qualifiers would be seeded into brackets based on
their strokeplay standing and each bracket, named after an iconic
figure of global golf, would be assigned to one of the four host golf
courses. The schedule would be as follows:
36-hole
strokeplay over 2 courses – 52 three-balls on each course each day
Saturday 24
August
Sunday 25
August
The
field are grouped in order of the Official World Golf Rankings
Leading
64 qualify for the match play stage
The
64 players are seeded into four brackets named after legends of the
game
Each
match is played over 36 holes and each bracket plays on a different
day
Round
of 64
Tuesday 8
36-hole matches 27 August Nicklaus Bracket
Wednesday 8
36-hole matches 28 August Palmer Bracket
Thursday 8
36-hole matches 29 August Player Bracket
Friday 8
36-hole matches 30 August Seve Bracket
Round
of 32
Saturday 4
36-hole matches 31 August Nicklaus Bracket
Sunday 4
36-hole matches 1 September Palmer Bracket
Monday 4
36-hole matches 2 September Player Bracket
Tuesday 4
36-hole matches 3 September Seve Bracket
Round
of 16
Wednesday 2
36-hole matches 4 September Nicklaus Bracket
Thursday 2
36-hole matches 5 September Palmer Bracket
Friday 2
36-hole matches 6 September Player Bracket
Saturday 2
36-hole matches 7 September Seve Bracket
Quarter-Finals
Sunday 1
36-hole match 8 September Nicklaus Bracket
Monday 1
36-hole match 9 September Palmer Bracket
Tuesday 1
36-hole match 10 September Player Bracket
Wednesday 1
36-hole match 11 September Seve Bracket
The
Fabulous Foursome
Semi-Finals
Saturday 2
36-hole matches 14 September
The
World Golf Championship Match
Sunday 1
36-hole match 15 September
The
World Golf Championship would feature 14 rounds of golf for those who
make it to the World Golf Championship Match rather than the 16
required for those who compete in all four PGA Tour Playoff
tournaments. And as this is a World Golf Championship the world will
compete over the season to reach the grand finale. The invitations
would go to the following players:
Leading
100 points earners on the PGA Tour Leading 60 money winners on the
European Tour
Leading
20 players on the PGA Tour of Australasia Leading 20 players on the
Asian Tour
Leading
20 players on the Japan Golf Tour Leading 20 players on the
Sunshine Tour
Winners
on all of the tours Remainder of the 312 players completed via
the Official World Golf Rankings
The
existing World Golf Championships would be downgraded and the current
framework would be discontinued, the Accenture Match Play would cease
to exist and the Cadillac Championship would become a full-field
tournament once again, with the Bridgestone Invitational remaining an
invitational tournament, all sole-sanctioned PGA Tour events. The
HSBC Champions would become a full European Tour event inviting the
champions of the world and would launch the European Tour season in
November. Because of the World Golf Championships being discontinued
in their current form I would devise a much better system of ensuring
the world's best golfers competed around the world each and every
year, still allowing for an individual to set his schedule but within
a framework. If you are one of the world's leading 50 golfers on
December 31 you must include at least one tournament in North
America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia not inclusive of the
Majors. Players would not have to play specific tournaments but they
would have to play at least one in each region in the upcoming season
if they have finished the year as a top fifty golfer.
Some
say this is punishing a top golfer by making them travel more, but
the top golfers have a responsibility to develop this great game on a
global basis and their ranking gets them into all four majors and
many other big events worldwide so they don't have to earn their way
into the majors in the current year anyway. The PGA Tour would lift
their introverted release clause and golfers would be able to play a
global schedule, but would still have to meet the minimum
requirements of the PGA Tour, or European Tour if they want to
compete for a place in the WGC.
The
WGC would be a feast of golf, much like March Madness is a feast of
Basketball. Every shot would be broadcast live from the entire match
play portion of the tournament and up to 10 hours per day would be
shown from the strokeplay tournament. NBC Universal is the major
television partner of the PGA Tour with Golf Channel broadcasting
some or all of the PGA Tour events outside the Majors and NBC
covering the final three playoff tournaments, the Florida Swing and
the Players Championship. The networks of NBC Universal would cover
the World Golf Championship like they do the Stanley Cup and like
CBS, TNT, TBS and truTV cover the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball
Tournament. This would mean live golf was broadcast for 19 out of 23
days. A feast of golf to finish the season and identify a true World
Golf Champion.
A
truly Sensational September.
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