Match Play Lessons
I'm sure I'm not the only person mentioning this, but the weekend's Match Play Championship put a spotlight on the glaring flaw with American golfers. They're not great match play players.
American golfers have dominated the majors, all four-round stroke play events, but have fallen short in match play events like the Ryder Cup. I believe the discrepancy can be traced back to the way college golf is played and maybe even farther back for the Americans.
Growing up and then playing at the collegiate level, all of our events were medal play (stroke play) events. I can probably think of two tournaments I played in which used a match play bracket. For golfers at the highest levels who have the most to gain from playing really well in stroke play events, it pays not to focus on match play and hone their skills to play against the course as opposed to play against a competitor.
It took me a lot of tries to finally do well in a match play event after all those years of nearly exclusive stroke play. Imagine how much harder it is for a player who works on their game every day to get out of that groove and approach a tournament with a different mindset. Only the best Americans (Tiger) have been able to do it in recent years.
The next time you're out, try playing your friends in a match play round and forget about overall score. It's harder than you think.
Labels: Match Play
posted by Oregon Golf Adventures @ 11:50 AM
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