Forget Boring Golf: Why We Desperately Need More Match Play Events

For as long as I’ve played golf, I’ve loved the competitive side of match play. I miss the team environment we had when I played for Hampshire teams as a junior. That head-to-head, adrenaline-fuelled battle, often against the odds, is so appealing to me.

The most popular spectator sport in the world is football. Why? Because of its unpredictable outcomes, non-stop flow, and massive global passion. Golf can be as exciting and appealing if only there were more match play. We’ve already seen women’s football grow at a huge rate; here’s a way to take a leaf out of soccer’s book and put our foot to the gas, accelerating the growth of golf.

Having just spent a few days at the Solheim Cup at Bernardus in The Netherlands, I truly believe that the energy sparked during this format of golf will really grow a new fanbase. The players connect with the crowd through music and dancing, really revving the mood up to a euphoric state. The roars of the crowd heard across the course fuelled the players in a way that stroke play cannot match.

Look how big the Ryder Cup has become compared to years gone by. The growth in popularity of the two greatest team events in golf cannot be denied. I have non-golfing female friends who religiously watch the Ryder Cup with their partners and freely admit they’re not into golf.

Director of Golf at Bernardus, Roel Verdonschot, said he was pleased to see the players really embrace the course’s risk-reward design. It suited the Solheim Cup and definitely saw some big power changes in many of the matches.

It was never over until the Guardians of the Cup sang their final song. That’s what I love about match play: it’s unpredictable, and every single shot impacts your opponent and can break them or fuel them to go for shots they wouldn’t usually take on. The way you can just clean the slate after taking a double bogey, lose one single hole, and then go on to win the next and ultimately the match.

The excitement when a match swings one way and then the other gives match play a faster pace, much like cricket has The Hundred or T20. Heading onto the course to play just a friendly match against a friend or a colleague carries a different level of fun when it’s purely match play.

There are no predisposed rules that you have to play 9 or 18 holes. A head-to-head 4-hole battle can be squeezed into a lunch break or a quick evening game. Think about who you’d like to challenge and which hole loops back towards the clubhouse, and throw down the gauntlet.

Pairs match play immediately turns golf, usually a single-player game, into a fuelled team event, and playing team sport comes with such deep human connection that I feel it envelopes golf in a much more connected way. It is hugely appealing to junior golfers as well as adults.

I sat and watched some of the final day’s Solheim Cup play with my nephew, and seeing the sparkle in his eyes as Europe moved ahead, or Lottie Woad holing a putt, was simply amazing. He and my son both asked why I didn’t take them with me to the Netherlands.

The instant excitement hole by hole, shot by shot, has viewers fixed to the screen and this kind of golf is pure sporting entertainment. This is why I feel we need more match play events. I’d be inclined to say team events over individual, but give me anything and I’ll be watching more golf. More importantly, this kind of “entertainment” will catch new fans and players in the same way the ramped-up versions of cricket have caught new cricketers.

GolfSixes didn’t work, but I really think this was a format issue. Turn this into 6-hole matches with teams of 4 over 3 rounds, and you’ve got a Ryder/Solheim Cup-style competition that will see fans gather in their masses. If we want to see growth (especially in the women’s game), we need a faster, more energised watch, then come the sponsors and the bigger purses.

As with the Solheim, match play exposes the character of these incredibly talented golfers and connects them to their audience as we get to know who they are. This is something we - the team at Golf Monthly - constantly discuss: the need to get to know the players for fans to become connected to them.

Seeing stars celebrate and dance around, embracing their teammates and rejoicing in the joy that is this game, helps the fans see them as people. Not just birdie-making machines with straight faces. Match play allows us to get to know these players and who they really are as humans. It exposes raw emotions as they play for each other with tears of joy, or are brought to their knees as the putt to stay in a match slides by.

So give me match play in bucketloads, because I cannot get enough of it. Show me team colours and I’ll coordinate my laces and sing the chants. If I could have taken my non-golfing pals to Bernardus, golf would have won itself a load of new fans and inspired more women to take up the game.

So next time a county or international match play event rolls into a town near you, gather up groups of women and girls and take them to showcase what this game can really be like. Here’s how golf will grow, and here’s to the magic of match play.