The Greatest Day In Golf: Wednesday at WGC

Some have suggested (I’ll not release names!) that Wednesday at the match play is the single greatest day in golf. For many, this stems from college basketball experiences over the course of the first two days of the NC2A tourney. What’s missing from this equation are 2 items. The first: no partiality toward golfers. If you support Towson State, you live and die with every shot. Not so much with Thomas Bjorn, am I right? The second: these are the top 64 (or 66) golfers in the world, purportedly. Towson State is in no one’s top 64, ever. Imagine if the WGC grabbed three kids from the Hooter’s Tour, two from the Asian Tour, 3 from the Aussie Tour and2 more from the Canadian Tour (and these weren’t even the best on those particular tours) and dropped them in as 15 and 16 seeds (occasionally one would land as a 12, for that 5-12 upset special.)  That would make things interesting.

I find it to be a great day for one split reason: we see exactly how great and precisely how lousy a guy can golf his ball on a given day. Seung-Yul Noh conceded 2 holes and bogied 5 more against Martin Kaymer…SYH is on his way home.  Charley Hoffman (he of the flow) bogied 4 times and doubled once (before tossing in a late eagle to postpone the inevitable) versus Mr. 79, Luke Donald, for the early exit. The grandaddy of suck, however, belonged to Jeff Overton-Ernie Els. This one went 19 holes (claimed by the South African) and featured 2 concessions, 8 bogies, 1 double and 5 birdies. Overton got out of the gate in usual fashion, birdie-birdie-birdie. Els then rebounded to claim, unbelievably, 6 of 7 holes (Overton won the other, to keep it close); Overton came back with two late wins, then gave it away on the 19th. To conclude, 1 of the first 11 holes was halved. Digital markers were kept busy during this tour, for sure.

A bit of Wednesday’s flavor remains on Thursday, before vanishing as a puff of smoke on the wind. The problem with the match play is, no losers’ bracket. They need to keep more great players around, more longerer. Let’s not kid ourselves…this ain’t no major and it ain’t no championship. Take your first round losers and have knockouts like they did recently at the Australian Tour’s SurfCoast Knockout event. More great players around for the week/weekend means happier sponsors.