The Match

Our intentions were to publish the first of a three-part series on our “Handicap System” however in lieu of launching of the series; I elected to take a swing at the recent golfing extravaganza commercially referred to as The Match.

On Friday, November 23rd, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson played a head-to-head match-play event at Shadow Creek Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nevada for a winner-take-all, $9,000,000. The event was broadcast via pay-per-view for $19.99.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were “All-Square” through regulation play, forcing a playoff. Mickelson birdied the 22nd hole to claim the $9,000,000 purse.

History:
Tiger Woods:

• 107 Career Wins, 80 PGA Tour wins
• 14 Major Championships
• Most Recent Win: 2018 Tour Championship
• Previous Win: 2013 WGC Bridgestone Invitational
• PGA Career Earnings: $115,504,853 (as reported by Wikipedia)

Phil Mickelson:

• 49 Career Wins, 43 PGA Tour Wins
• 5 Major Championships
• Most Recent Win: 2018 WGC Mexico Championship
• Previous Win: 2013 Open Championship
• PGA Career Earnings: $88,173,124 (as reported by Wikipedia)

Facts:

• Mickelson shot 3 under par for 22 holes of play (4 birdies/1 bogey)
• Woods shot 3 under par for 22 holes of play (5 birdies/2 bogeys)
• Ricky Fowler tweeted during The Match suggesting their performance was a “pillow fight”.
• Justin Rose won the season-long 2018 Fed-Ex Cup, earning $10,000,000
• Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson went 0-6 during the recent 2018 Ryder Cup loss to Europe in France

Speculation:

• A significant percentage of our population was unable to afford the $19.99 pay-per-view subscription.
• Many that could were not interested enough to do so, present company included.

Pretty exciting stuff, two of the greatest players of our generation facing off, mano a mano, sorting out who would play just a little better over four/five hours, on Black Friday for $9,000,000 on pay-per-view!

I was personally saddened by the amount of the purse and the overtly opulent side wagers (i.e. $100,000, $200,000 and possibly $1,000,000). The event, and their conduct, lacked financial sensitivity to the masses (never mind feeding into the perception that golf is an elitist sport) with little, if any, commentary relative to potential benefactors not to mention their play was mediocre as was the television production.

In addition, I was disappointed by the name of the event; The Match. As referenced in a number of previous Bad Golf Guy posts, the original The Match, as documented by Mark Frost in his book The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, was a clandestine completion in 1956 at Cypress Point Club on the Monterey Peninsula between two amateurs (Harvie Ward/Ken Venturi) and two professionals (Ben Hogan/Byron Nelson) with the Hogan/Nelson team winning on the final hole. THE Match was played without a player purse.

The most recent The Match did little for the image and/or the promotion of our game on the heels of golf’s greatest event, The Ryder Cup, where players simply play for pride, their country and their teammates.

I harken back to the mid to late 60’s, on the basketball court at Washington Avenue Park in Springfield, New Jersey. The brutal mano o mano battles against Paul Piskavich (never did like Paul very much, he was older, he was arrogant, he was opinionated and his gab was better than his game). As I recall, there was no purse, Turner Sports and AT&T were nowhere to be found, no pay-per-view subscriptions, no side wagers (no one had any cash), simply two idiots trying to beat the crap out of each other for the shear satisfaction of knowing that for one day one of us had “shown-up” the other and one of us left the court with a little hop in his step.

I truly believe there were better options for Tiger, Phil and the game of golf.

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