Ernie Els (Wikimedia Commons)
One of the interesting events of the year is the World Matchplay Championships that is going on currently in Tucson, Arizona.
The event is extremely unique because of all of the head-to-head battles on the golf course. You simply don’t see this type of format at any other time in professional golf except for the first two days of the Ryder Cup and President’s Cup.
One could argue the event has been unique so far because of the upsets– Ernie Els over number one seed Luke Donald, Kyle Stanley over fourth seed K.J. Choi, Y.E. Yang over third seed Graeme McDowell, Miguel Angel Jimenez over Sergio Garcia, Sang-Moon Bae over previous champion Ian Poulter, Ryo Ishikawa over number three seed Bill Haas and Italian teenager Matteo Manassero over second seeded American Webb Simpson.
But one could argue, like me, that there haven’t been any significant upsets at all, because unlike tennis, there are no dominant golfers in the game today. Tiger Woods is not even close to being the golfer he once was, Phil Mickelson is not even here because he is on a family vacation and no other golfer is dominating the game consistently enough to be considered a clear favourite–even at the World Matchplay Championships. Also, Els is more experienced than Donald (and has three majors), Yang is a major winner as well and Ishikawa is a rising star in the game today.
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