Women's Open gets changes
The U.S. Women's Open has a big change coming its way. The game's governing body here in the United States announced Friday that it would change the way playoffs were conducted for the women's championship.
Instead of a full 18-hole playoff on the day following the final round (of which there have been ten), those tied atop the leaderboard will move to a three-hole aggregate score playoff. After that, a sudden-death playoff will be conducted.
Said newly elected USGA President Walter Driver, "This makes sense for the players, fans, volunteers, vendors, the general media and our broadcast partners regarding the Women’s Open." The same format is also used for the U.S. Senior Open.
This style of playoff is similar to the one used by the Royal & Ancient in the British Open (both The Masters and PGA Championship are decided by sudden-death playoffs), the leaves the men's U.S. Open the only championship decided by a full 18-hole playoff. Could that change?
For now, Driver said the USGA has no plans to change the Men's Open. But, even if they did, would that be a bad thing? Many will argue that there's tradition in the 18-hole playoff, but I thnk it would actually be an improvement. Those who attend the final round will actually get to see who wins and TV viewship would probably be better than for those playoffs decided the following day. It's an extra day of championship golf, yes, but does it really get any better than Father's Day to crown our national champion?
Let me know what you think.
posted by Oregon Golf Adventures @ 9:50 PM
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