Tiger-Rory Final Round "Engineered"

Ridiculous. If you buy into the premise that this particular final round is a forgone conclusion and/or that it's engineered, you question the basic seeding system used for every sport from Little League to tennis, to soccer, to the upcoming, much beloved March Madness NCAA basketball tournament.

Rory and Tiger are currently ranked number one and two respectively in the world. To have seeded them any OTHER way would have been "engineered"!

The headline writer has done the author no favours here at all. The article mentions TV cos wanting Rory & Tiger in the final group once at the end, no real discussion of fixing Rory v Tiger.

 

Its a strange love in of match-play, which hasn't been the mainstay of the professional game since golfs very early days.

 

Bizarre article in general, but the headline is particularly misleading.

You're right on both counts.

The author seems to be saying that a resurgence in more televised match play events would be good for the game. On the other hand, he believes (I think) that the time-honored method of tournament seeding whereby top-ranked players are seeded apart from each other and only meet when and IF they first defeat all the lesser ranked players along the way, is somehow bad.

If he'd spent as much time developing his premise and reasoning as he did trying to impress us with his ability to use a thesaurus, he might have been better off.......

You have to mostly agree with the article.  Diehard viewers may still watch, but for a lot of folks with only a casual interest in watching golf, the loss of both Tiger and Rory in the first round has definitely dimmed the lights on the Accenture.   Bubba Watson and Sergio Garcia might be the only "peoples' choice" players left in the field, and even Sergio has lost some of the luster of his youth.  Unless at least one of them makes it to the final, I see a lot of people finding other things to do this weekend.  I may peek at it now and then, but I'm not going to camp out in front of the TV myself.

It is a vulnerable format. I probably won't tune in to see two players I don't really care about for the final round. With only two players on the field (or is it 4?), there is too much time without golf. If it's not players you like, or the higher ranked ones, it doesn't appeal as much.

I just don't understand that. Maybe from a casual fan, but not from a golf enthusiast. Sunday will have two Mano a Mano matches between 4 of the top players in the world, all of whom are playing at the top of their game this week. The golf will be great, and the golf is what I tune in to watch, not any individual golfer.

Hear! Hear!

 

I MUCH rather watch some relatively unknown player play lights out than watch Tiger/Rory play a crappy round that is well below their standards.

 

FORE RIGHT!!!! LOL. (the exception being Mickelson, his bad rounds kind be pretty spectacular in their own way!)

 

Besides, some of these relatively unknowns are pretty spectacular, never heard of Russell Henley before the Honda (don't really follow any Nationwide coverage) but methinks I'll hearing plenty about him in the present/future.

 

That's a great sentiment and I'm am a golf fan, but I'm not going to tune in to watch a Noren vs. Fraser final.  For me that would be an ultimate yawner.  

 

LOL......not likely to happen, but even if it did, it'd mean they were both playing out of their ever loving minds and would likely be a helluva match!

 

I'd watch Donald vs. Rose.  That would be a fun match. 

I don't watch every tournament just because I'm an enthusiast. How well they played depends on how well their oponents played.
There is no guarantee the golf will be great just because it's the final. In regular tournaments it's not that bad, since you got 74 players on the weekend, but watching two players I don't care much for isn't all that exciting. Once you've seen a number of tournaments, you know what to expect as far as the golf goes. Good players making pars, birdies and some bogies. I wouldn't watch as much golf if the players were anonymous.

Same reason I don't watch Italian football. The teams are good, but I don't have any connection to them.

I didn't watch the World Series last year.  I love baseball, absolutely love it.  But I'm an Indians fan and until they do something in the fall, I'm not watching.  I've got more important things to do.  I'll make time to watch my favorite team, but not the Tigers and Giants.

 

Same thing here.  I didn't really have plans to watch anyway as I've got much more important stuff going on, but I'd have been more inclined to see a Rory/Tiger finals than two guys I don't even know about.

 

That said, I didn't read the article but it's called "general numerical draw".  1 goes on one side and 2 goes on the other.  That's how it's done.  It's not engineered for anybody.