Match Play Upsets Ruin The NCAA Championship

Match play is an exciting golf scoring format. It turns golf into a mono y mono contest where the winner is determined solely by the number of holes won. There's no bonus for the margin of victory on each hole, just one point is awarded for each hole won. As a result, it is "the great equalizer" and has proven to produce far more upsets than the standard stroke play format. In basketball, the NCAA Basketball Championship is known as "March Madness" due to the crazy number of unexpected upsets. But it can't hold a candle to match play golf. The Wall Street Journal compared the winning percentages of higher seeds in golf's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship to March Madness. They found that the higher seed in basketball won 72% of the time compared to only 60% in golf.

So it's fairly obvious that the match play format sacrifices a bit of fairness for excitement and suspense. It's rare that the player hoisting a match play trophy is truly the best golfer in the field. Perhaps that's the reason there's only one match play tournament on the PGA Tour. But it also makes you wonder why the NCAA added match play to the Men's Golf Championship in 2009. Isn't this the final tournament of the year with the sole purpose of identifying the best team in college golf?

The tournament's current format is 54 holes of stroke-play followed by a match play playoff among the top 8 teams. As one might predict, the format is producing unpredictable results. Of the five tournaments so far, four of the #1 ranked golf teams have been upset. But this year's 2013 NCAA Championship featured the biggest upset of them all. Cal was the best college golf team this year and perhaps all-time. Just check out these fun facts:

• After winning its first two events, the team was ranked #1 and held that spot all season.
• The team set a modern-era NCAA record with 12 victories in 14 stroke-play events.
• Every starter won at least one individual title this season.
• Each starter finished the season with stroke-play averages under 71.00
• The starters finished the season ranked individually #1, 11, 12, 13, and 19 by Golfweek.
• Three starters were first-team Ping All-Americans, the other two are on the second-team.
• The head coach, Steve Desimone, was named national coach of the year for the last two years.

So it was no surprise that Cal crushed the competition in the 54-hole stroke-play portion of the 2013 NCAA Championship by six shots. Entering the match-play portion seeded #1, it was also no surprise that they would be upset by lowly Illinois, the #20 ranked team in the nation.

If this doesn't cast a bright spot light on the deficiencies of the match-play format, nothing will. It's simply not fair for a team that has proven all season it is the best by a wide margin to have it all come undone over several hours of random heads-up golf. Under a conventional 72-hole stroke-play format, Cal would have rightfully run away with the title. Every competitive golfer knows that stroke-play is the best overall test of golf. Heck, it worked for the NCAA Championship for the 44-years prior to 2009. It's clear that the NCAA's effort to spice things up with match-play has been a failure and diminishes the legitimacy of the title. After Illinois upset Cal, Desimone said, “All today does is demonstrate again that this is not the best way to crown the national champion.” It's just a shame that arguably the best college golf team of all-time will fade into obscurity due to a poorly conceived championship format. In this regard, match-play is truly upsetting.

10 Great Golf Travel Packing Tips

 

Turnberry Resort in Scotland

You're finally embarking on your golf dream trip and you know you'll need to take your “A” game, right?

Be aware, golf travelers, if you don’t pack carefully you might end up with so many annoyances and hassles that playing your best is almost impossible.

Here are 10 invaluable tips I can share that’ll help your trip be full of great memories. Some of these I learned the hard way by forgetting them or foolishly disregarding advice from fellow golf travelers and writers.

1. Invest in a top quality travel cover—Absolutely, positively don’t try to save money by purchasing a cheap travel cover. You can protect your golf club investment by getting a cover from a respected company like Club Glove, Ogio or Sun Mountain.

More Tips:

·      Don’t select an all-black cover so you can avoid looking like everybody else. You’ll save time finding your bag on the carousel if it has a recognizable color treatment.

·      Use your travel cover as an additional piece of luggage by packing shoes and extra shirts on departure and dirty laundry on your return.

·      Make sure your nametag or business card is placed on the outside of the bag and the inside as well, just in case the outside card is displaced.

2. A lightweight carry Bag for the British Isles—If you’ve every played golf in this part of the world, you’ll notice that the most experienced caddies gravitate to the lightest bag in the group. Show up with one of those huge staff bags and you’ll be treated like someone with a contagious disease.

3. Microfiber clothing—These amazing fabrics were made for golf travelers. They’re lightweight, wrinkle resistant and dry quickly.

4. Quality golf outerwear —If you want to be miserable, I mean truly miserable, take a golf vacation to Scotland, Ireland or the Monterrey Peninsula in California with some ragtag, makeshift rainwear. Standing in a fairway with a thirty-mile an hour cross wind and a heavy downpour without adequate protection is not a memory you’ll treasure. Top companies, include Sun Mountain, Sunice and Zero Restriction.

5. Take some stain remover for mud--If you don’t, you might bring home a mud-splotched pair of golf slacks or khakis as a souvenir of your trip.

6. Waterproof golf shoes (with shoe trees)—You must have a dry pair available in case you get caught in a downpour. Ideally, you need to take at least two pair of waterproof golf shoes, especially on trips four days or longer.

7. Quality golf umbrella—Don’t depend on the cheap logo umbrella you received as a gift at your last corporate golf tourney. Invest in a top quality umbrella that can withstand strong winds and, more importantly, keep you dry between shots.

8. Sizeable golf ball inventory—In my experience, buying golf balls outside of the U.S. always involves serious sticker shock and a suddenly exploding travel budget.  Obviously, if you’re a high handicapper you’ll need more golf balls.  Honestly evaluate your game to calculate how many golf balls will be enough.

9. Extra items—If you’re traveling in the British Isles or just about anywhere away from the continental U.S., make sure you take extra tees, pencils and divot repair tools which aren’t as readily available at golf courses outside the U.S.

10. Healthy snacks—You’ll be glad you packed a couple of boxes of granola bars and packages of peanut butter crackers, especially if you’re playing in the British Isles. While the beef barley soup and fish and chips are treasured favorites after a around, you’ll need some healthy fortification during play.

10 Things You Should Know About U.S. Open 2013 Merion Golf Club

The U.S. Open is going "Old School" in 2013 with Merion Golf Club (East Course), a classic layout in Ardmore, Pennsylvania opened in 1912.  This is not your typical 7,700-yard behemoth course where you "grip it and rip", then grab a wedge on par fours and go eagle and birdie hunting on par fives.

Playing from 6,996 yards (36-34-70), Merion is the first U.S. Open course under 7,000 yards since 2004.

The Merion East Course will quickly identify the contenders and expose the pretenders. Accuracy off the tee, shotmaking, and exceptional putting are necessary ingredients to score well on this layout with its deep rough, slippery smallish greens and difficult bunkers.

Here are 10 things you might not know about Merion:

1. Wicker Baskets-You won't see any flags on pins blowing in the wind. All of the pins are topped with a small wicker basket.

2. Only Two Par Fives-Yes, that's right. There are only a couple of par fives (556 yard no. 2 and 628 yard no. 4) on the entire course. In fact, the back nine has no par fives.

3. Long Time, No See--Merion has been out of the rotation for a while and has not hosted a U.S. Open since 1981.

4. The Golf Course Architect--The course was designed by Hugh Wilson, a Scottish immigrant member who had never designed a course.

5. Give Me a Yardage--There are no yardage markers anywhere on the Merion East Course.

6. Walking Only--The Merion East Course is walking only with an exceptional caddie program.

7. No Breakfast Balls--One of the strongly enforced rules for members is "No mulligans on the first tee."

8. Menacing Bunkers--The Scottish style bunkers on Merion East are known as "the white faces of Merion."

9. Hogan Legend--Merion is the site of Ben Hogan's famous 1-iron Shot in the 1950 U.S. Open.

10. Bobby Jones History--In 1930, Bobby Jones achieved the "Grand Slam" at Merion with his U.S. Amateur Victory.