Back
Monday evening marked the ninth staging of Capital One's The Match. Golfers who have watched more than one or two editions of what has become 21st-century golf's answer to Shell's Wonderful World of Golf likely know what to expect by now, and what not to.
Which is to say that the latest playing of the traveling golf exhibition series ultimately was not much of a departure from the previous ones. Professional golfers - Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang this time - played a dozen holes at a nice golf course. They interacted in a friendly way with stilted-at-best "trash talk" accentuated at times by an announcing crew that starred Charles Barkley. There were some good moments, but the pacing was slow as the broadcast ran more than half an hour past its three-hour allotted window (apologies to those hoping to catch TNT's 10 p.m. showing of Rudy). McIlroy ended up the big winner on the night, winning the $1.6 million final skin for charity during a "wedge off" on the do-or-die playoff hole.
On a night without much else in the way of televised sports, though, it was a nice diversion, with its virtues just overtaking the foibles that continue to go unfixed.
Here are my five main takeaways from the evening's festivities:
Good courses make for compelling golf, even when it's not serious
It's understandable that The Match leaned on glitzy Las Vegas courses like Shadow Creek and Wynn Golf Club for some pizzazz in the early days, but from this golf geek's perspective, the latest edition benefited from a new venue in The Park West Palm. The Gil Hanse- and Jim Wagner-designed "super-muni" that opened in 2023 seeks to be a model for high-end American municipal golf and is, on its merits, a very good course with no weak holes on an appealing piece of ground.
Though the nighttime window of The Match concealed its beauty somewhat, the sound of golf balls bouncing along The Park's firm turf was a welcome one, and made the best shots just a bit more exciting. And the fact that The Match traded out the untouchably expensive Vegas venues for someplace more accessible (though out-of-towners still pay upwards of $300 to play The Park) made the vibe feel a bit more down-to-earth, especially with gaggles of kids staying up well past bedtime to catch the action. I stayed up later than usual, too, but seeing the pros navigate a course with which I'm familiar was worthwhile.
The ladies get their spotlight...finally
Women have been excluded from The Match for too long; organizers should have conscripted LPGA Tour stars after the first couple of events. Better late than never, though; Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang acquitted themselves well. They were every bit as charming and occasionally awkward as their male counterparts. Their style of play worked quite well at The Park. Both ladies drove the ball considerably lower than the men, and were able to use the firmness of the golf course to extract several extra yards of roll. They both seemed eminently comfortable in the festival atmosphere.
The kids are alright
Rose Zhang in particular is a cool customer. She rocked up rusty to The Park on the back of a month-long layoff due to school (she's taking a full slate of classes in order to finish her degree at Stanford) and didn't secure any skins but represented Gen Z ably. Her gratitude at merely getting to participate was refreshing to see, especially in a time in golf's history where pros have never been more spoiled as a class. Zhang's simultaneous education and golf career is impressive and even a little uplifting.
Charles Barkley remains one of a kind
Non-golf-celebrity involvement with golf events tends to go over like a first-tee DJ Khaled hype-session. But Charles Barkley continues to be an exception to that rule. He may be one of the best basketball players of the modern era, but put him in a golf context and he becomes an everyman who seizes the opportunity to pick the brains of big-time golf minds like The Match participants and fellow commentator Trevor Immelman. Barkley is naturally hilarious, giving grief as good as he gets it, but it's his genuine curiosity about golf that makes him an indispensable part of The Match broadcasts. He ends up standing in for the audience; that's a rare skill.
Make it snappy
All that said, no amount of one-liners from Chuck can make up for the fact that The Match and other similar golf exhibitions like the Netflix Cup simply take too long and proceed too slowly. The 12-holer at The Park took more than three and a half hours to complete. That's just too long for a broadcast that isn't meant to be serious. Forcing boring and stilted interviews after each hole where skins were won on the audience bogged things down further. In an era where breezy, action-packed golf YouTube videos get millions of views, it doesn't seem as if The Match's overseers are willing to trim some of the bloat that adds extra time between shots and holes in order to make the product leaner and more engaging. I don't see any reason future editions of The Match need to be any more than nine holes.
Comments (2)
I watched it and enjoyed the banter as well as the play. It was really nice to have 4 pro golfers vs. sport celebrities. BUT....I was not home at the time and had to record it. When I watched it the next day, I could fast forward through it at will. So, it was all good!
I found the presentation of the show by accident. I tuned in to "HLN" expecting to see "Forensic Files" and found "The Match". I immediately checked to see if this was a re-run from November or December because I felt it was unreal to have a live event with pros during the regular 2024 season.
I could never tell how much of the banter that the golfers could hear. I found the event enjoyable but tedious as the "interviews" after each hole were worthless. The one-club challenge was fun, but why couldn't everyone choose a 4-iron if they wanted to, why was the next golfer unable to use what the previous golfers had taken?