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Paul Lawrie’s New Match Play Event is One to Watch

By Sam Belden

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Jul 17, 2015; St Andrews, SCT; Paul Lawrie discusses yardage with his caddie David Kenny on the 10th tee during during the second round of the 144th Open Championship at St Andrews – Old Course. Mandatory Credit: Steve Flynn-USA TODAY Sports

It may be an off-year for the Ryder Cup, but luckily for fans of the event, we still get a handful of chances to see some of our favorite European Tour players in match play action. One of those will come on Thursday morning at the inaugural Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play at Murcar Golf Links.

Many familiar faces from the biennial exhibition will be teeing it up, including Edoardo Molinari, Oliver Wilson, Robert Karlsson, David Howell and Nicolas Colsaerts. Lawrie, the 1999 Champion Golfer of the Year and tournament host, joins them as the sixth former Ryder Cupper in the field, while American John Daly is sure to draw big crowds as long as he can stave off elimination.

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It’s great that Lawrie has taken the time to organize this new tournament–it shows that he’s nicely transitioning to an elder statesman role on the European Tour. Frankly, it’s about time. His last top 10 anywhere came in January of 2013, and he’s made 48 starts since then.

Despite his well-documented love of Ryder Cup golf, Lawrie is likely aware that he’s a longshot to qualify for the 2016 team, so heading up a brand new match play event is the next best thing. The fact that so many solid European Tour players have agreed to tee it up at the inaugural edition speaks to their respect for Lawrie as well as their love of the format.

It’s no secret: match play is awesome. There are rivalries and showdowns in golf, but most of the time, the players’ main adversary is the golf course itself. That won’t be the case at Lawrie’s tournament. Instead, we’ll be treated to a tournament chock full of head-to-head, win or go home matchups, something that golf fans only get to witness for a few weeks out of each year.

we’ll be treated to a tournament chock full of head-to-head, win or go home matchups, something that golf fans only get to witness for a few weeks out of each year.

If you like golf and you like thrills, you’ll have a great time watching this tournament.

Whenever a match play event wraps up, it seems like many golf fans ask the same question: why don’t we have more events like that? Well, the simple answer is that stroke play is a much better method of determining a worthy champion than match play. In most stroke play events, a player has to post a score that betters that of more than a hundred players if he wants to win, but in the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship, one of the most prestigious match play events in the world, he has to defeat just seven en route to the trophy. It’s a tricky question that plagues all sports–whether or not an accurate result should be sacrificed for sheer excitement–but in golf, the world’s major tours opt for the former in the vast majority of cases.

Still, match play is clearly thrilling. The Ryder Cup is one of the highlights of the world of golf, and its less popular cousin, the Presidents Cup, is a worthy fill-in in off years. Similarly in women’s pro golf, the Solheim Cup rivals the Ryder Cup for fan and team energy and the newly created International Crown promises equal excitement.

Lawrie’s event probably slots in as the fifth most prestigious men’s match play event in the world, behind the aforementioned two, the WGC Match Play and the Volvo World Match Play, also held on the European Tour. For a brand new event, that’s pretty good.

Match play might not always deliver the most impartial result, but you can’t deny how compelling it is. Every once in a while, it’s just the thing that golf needs to add some spice to the weekly grind of tour life, and the sport would probably benefit from adding a bit more of it to the schedule. The inaugural Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play isn’t one you’ll want to miss.

You can catch the opening round action starting at 7:30 a.m. EST on Golf Channel and the final two days starting at 6 a.m. Sky Sports is following a similar schedule, with the coverage beginning on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. GMT.

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