A Match-Play Weekend

The LPGA and European tours are contesting their respective match-play championships this week. It’s a shame that they aren’t valued higher, in the form of major championship status. Such recognition would bring notoriety of a positive sort to the events.

Be that as it may, here are some nuggets of information important at least to me and, hopefully, to you:

*It was good to be an Englishman in the preliminary rounds of the World Match Play championship. Five red-and-whites made it through to the quarters: Justin Rose, Robert Rock, Ian Poulter, Tom Lewis and Richard Finch);

*It was not so good to be an Englishman in the quarterfinals. All five lost in an ambush worse than the day that the Jedi fell in Star Wars Six (or was it Three?)

*Three top-nine golfers remain in the LPGA match play event. #s1 and 2 Yani and Ya, along with #6 Stacy Lewis, are joined by six ranked 10-19; 2 from the 30s, 3 from the 40s and 1 from the 60s (Jodi Ewart, easily the upset queen of the week.) This tells me that either the seeding team from the LPGA tour does a better job than the World Golf Championships, or a vast gulf exists between the top 20 lady golfers and the rest of the tour.

*Just as the “top USA golfer” debate in the men’s game rumbles down highway 66, so does it move on the LPGA tour. Stacy Lewis is staking a claim, but others won’t go away. I wonder if this could be a breakout week for Vicky Hurst. She skipped college, went the Futures Tour route, got her tour card after one year in the minors and is up against Angela Stanford, touted as a match-play specialist, a grinder, but surprisingly weak on numerous occasions. Perhaps Stanford is the epitome of  the “We need one of THESE, so let’s tout her as THAT” approach to media relations and promotion.

*My picks for the semis are:

LPGA Event: Yani, Ya, So and Stacy

European Event: Sergio, the resurgent Paul Lawrie, Brandt and Rafe