McCARTHY: Match play must stay on PGA Tour

Why is that? Because golf is usually a game of misses, or more accurately, limiting the damage from your misses. A popular quote attributed to Ben Hogan is that golf is 20 percent talent and 80 percent management. That ratio isn’t exactly the best way to showcase the nearly superhuman talent of the world’s best golfers, but it is how to win a four-day tournament where every shot counts.

Early on Sunday in his semifinal match versus Cameron Young, Rory McIlroy played a chip shot away from the hole and off the green, rolling the ball high up a mound beside the putting surface, allowing it to trundle slowly and wonderfully back onto the green and finish near the hole. It was a shot he’d be unlikely to play in stroke play where taking your medicine and eliminating the risk of a big number is almost always the prudent decision.

All week at Austin Country Club we watched player after player take on the water at the driveable par-4 13th hole, knowing that a mistake wouldn’t sink their week. It was guaranteed excitement. “You need to expect the unexpected in this format,” Canadian Mackenzie Hughes said after his round of 16 win over Max Homa. “Like on the last hole there, expecting Max to do something crazy, maybe hole a wedge or make that putt. … So you’re kind of always expecting that, and you’re trying to stay on the offensive. This format can change on a dime.”

The world’s best golfers have never been better and match play allows their talent and creativity to truly shine. It’s no secret that with just four players on the course on Sunday, match play is a harder sell to sponsors, but it’s a format with a deep and rich history that’s so very obviously worth saving. If the tour’s 2024 schedule is released, as expected, without a match play event, I’ve got a hot new slogan ready. The PGA Tour: Now with more prudent decisions.

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