“Eighteen holes of match play will teach you more about your foe than 18 years of dealing with him across a desk.”
– Grantland Rice, legendary 20th century sportswriter
The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship tees off Wednesday at The Gallery Golf Club in Tucson. Geoff Ogilvy (pictured) defends. The purse is $8 million. And anything can happen because, well, it’s match play.
John Rollins, who is pitted against Vijah Singh in his opening match, said this about the match play format in an article at PGATour.com:
“You have to keep it in play and stay patient. Match play is a funny game. You have to try to play your game and keep the pressure on him. You want to make him have to do something to beat you rather than beat yourself.”
For those of you who missed my December series, “Matchplay Secrets of Tour Pros,” or would like to revisit it, here are the links:
Peter Alliss
Sandy Lyle
Gary Player
Jim Gallagher Jr.
The Armchair Golfer
(Note: Thanks to reader Bob Wright for sending me the Grantland Rice quote, along with many others.)