How to watch Mickelson/woods

[Wilson]

If they don’t end up "spending" all the $9m on side bets, so it all goes to charity, then thy want their heads banging together! The money is nothing to Tiger, and I know Phil blows most of his cash, but he can’t need this surely?

 

[popeye]

What a farce this is turning into-as if golf didn't have a big enough problem with its image as something that "rich people" play with out that photo adding to it.

 

[ger147]

Live on Sky Sports in the UK...

 

[Neeko1988]

I’ve just seen that aswell, 8pm onwards sky sports golf. Announced earlier

 

[Jamesbrown]

Looking forward to it.
The amount of money at stake, and the proportion that goes to charity doesn’t bother me. It’s not my money.
Something different other than waiting for the majors to be televised for me.

 

[CliveW]

Looks like it's going to be live on Sky Sports.

 

[Grantley1988]

It will be interesting to hear the talk between the caddies and players throughout the match.

I’m sure there will be lots of cringeworthy moments but i’m still looking forward to the match.

If the match was for £9,000 instead of £9,000,000 it makes no difference to us watching so I don’t really see that as an issue.

 

[Grant85]

Glad that a broadcaster has got this.

Given how late the deal was done, we can safely assume the host broadcaster was looking for too much money and the likes of BT, Eleven Sports, Premier and probably Sky all said no in the 1st round of offers. Sky have gone back and made them a late offer and they've thought well we can either make £0 off it, or whatever Sky are willing to throw in the pot, and given it's a one off event - there's no use in cutting our noses off.

I'm semi surprised they didn't just do an online only stream with a one off payment. Assume you probably need to adhere to broadcast rules in most countries and they saw it as too much hassle to try and comply. You would definitely need to do this with adverts or risk a fine.

 

[Kellfire]

We still pretending we aren’t watching this...?

 

[abjectplop]

So they're currently all square through 20 holes. The playoff is sudden death to the 18th green from a temp tee on the practice green outside the clubhouse at 93yds!

 

[Grant85]

This was strangely enjoyable despite the poor standard of golf - however I guess that's Matchplay. And you also can't knock Mickelson getting the ball off the tee very well.

The side bets... I think they missed a trick here. There was a bit of back and forth on the front 9, but in the back 9 when the match was close and they were focussed on the big prize, they didn't do many side bets or interact much.

Also - being mic'd up. It was interesting to a point when you hear them over a shot, or just after they'd hit - but didn't make or break the coverage. I reckon there's a lot of players who wouldn't go for that if they were trying to make it into a series.

The pace of play - this was pretty awful. There were only 2 guys on the course - albeit there seemed to be a lot of walking between holes. Get them buggies and it might have been a bit more brisk.

The course. I liked the course, but tbh, it looked like one that if they had a PGA tour event there it would have been -25 to get into the top 3. Which makes more of a mockery that they were only a few under for the 18 holes.

Ideas on expanding the format in next post.

 

[Grant85]

I personally enjoy watching matchplay and I think golf really misses a trick by having almost exclusively stroke play events. Appreciate there are logistical reasons for not having matchplay events, and a lot of the top players don't like it because the 150th player in the world could easily take out a top 10 guy over 18 holes, but likely wouldn't finish ahead of him over 72 holes.

However if they do turn this into a thing - lets say they have the top 6 or 8 guys who play a season long series. They could potentially play the Wednesday before a tournament, or they could run 2 or 3 'meetings' throughout the season - probably early and later in the season.

They could also play floodlight golf on prime time US TV if they got the right course, or loop of 6 or 9 holes that had good lights (better than last night).

Play at least 2 matches at a time so that the TV coverage had a bit more going on. Not bothered about them being mic'd up, but they could have a mic on course to capture some of the important conversations.

Have it on a skins format, so you win a hole for say $10,000 and if they halve it - the money rolls over. Have a few pre-determined side bets - nearest pin, long drive, straightest drive, closest to a hazard without going in etc. Guys accumulate money throughout the season and sit in a league table, with top 2 maybe having a big shootout.

Potential that guys could offer odds on certain outcomes to try and take a risk and make up ground.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

They already have the WGC Matchplay and some players miss that

No player is going to play on a Wednesday evening before a Comp , especially when a lot of them have charity pro Am’s on the Wednesday which again some miss to prep for the tournament.

There used to be a World Matchplay as well but that filtered away due to lack of interest. The calendar for them is pretty full as it is - in the gaps the ET have tried various things - shot clock , sixes and it hasn’t really grabbed the wider audience.

There seems to be this desperation to find golfs version of T20 - I don’t understand why , it’s going to get to the stage where people are too busy trying to forge a new “younger” market they actually turn the long standing stable market away from the sport.

 

[Grant85]

They already have the WGC Matchplay and some players miss that

No player is going to play on a Wednesday evening before a Comp , especially when a lot of them have charity pro Am’s on the Wednesday which again some miss to prep for the tournament.

There used to be a World Matchplay as well but that filtered away due to lack of interest. The calendar for them is pretty full as it is - in the gaps the ET have tried various things - shot clock , sixes and it hasn’t really grabbed the wider audience.

There seems to be this desperation to find golfs version of T20 - I don’t understand why , it’s going to get to the stage where people are too busy trying to forge a new “younger” market they actually turn the long standing stable market away from the sport.

Well it’s quite obvious that a 72 hole strokeplay event has very little interest until the final rounds.

They could have more of a an audience for match play.

Agree about the schedule, and it is too difficult to really build a matchplay event with only half a dozen guys. The only reason they could do this was it was thanksgiving and so there were no other PGA tour events scheduled.

Unlikely to turn into anything than the odd one off.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I thought the matchplay at Wentworth disappeared due to a lack of sponsorship once HSBC pulled out in the UK event and Volvo pulled out in the Spanish incarnation and the change in format. If golf was looking for a T20 version then the obvious version is the Super 6 so I think it's found what it's looking for there and that's a different issue to the lack of matchplay events

 

[Deleted member 15344]

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/ti...9-2020-after-two-golfers-sign-three-year-deal

Looks like they are going to be doing it again

 

[Imurg]

Deep joy.
Can't wait......
Not strictly true.....I can wait....a long, long time....

 

[anotherdouble]

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/ti...9-2020-after-two-golfers-sign-three-year-deal

Looks like they are going to be doing it again

Phil I know it’s the season of goodwill and all that, but you could have kept this all to yourself or maybe just shared it with your good ladies👍

 

[TheDiablo]

The rumours I heard were JT and Rory, with Hideki another option

 

[Grant85]

Definitely up for more of this, especially with more players. Personally surprised Woods has gone for it. He didn't really look interested during the Match and you always felt that Phil was giving himself more opportunities and playing beyond himself (certainly in terms of his driving). Also reckon they would have to split Woods and Phil up... it would not be great if Rory and JT took them out 7 & 6 in 2.5 hours.

Of course one of the main reasons we don't see much matchplay is that the 'top' players back themselves over 72 holes, but over 18 anything can happen. A lot of them are happy to miss the WGC Matchplay because they could have a few bad holes and be out against the world number 60.

And the big problem with having a top 8 matchplay event is that it just doesn't involve enough players. A Tour event has room for 150 players and 70 get paid.

Also, it is inevitable that the more we see of this type of thing, the more likely we will not get close matches. Therefore the side bets and format become even more important to keep it interesting.