Day Two 2011 Match Play Open Thread
/I blew it yesterday not opening up a thread but after Kelly Tilghman opened her on-camera time with info on where Tiger could drop to in the world rankings, it's my duty to offer a place to vent!
When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Where Would You Take The Match Play?
/It's sounding more and more like the WGC Accenture Match Play will be leaving Tucson's Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain Resort and Cholla Nursery sooner than later. Accenture is not thrilled with the place and we know how the players, media and fans feel about the Nicklaus course that was designed for this event and yet somehow manages not to include much in the way of charm of memorability.
Read MoreDay One WGC Match Play This And That
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All 32 matches are summed up at PGATour.com and the current bracket is here.
Jim McCabe files notes on the highlights from day one while Gary Van Sickle says Tiger's loss wasn't much of an upset. He also offers day two predictions.
Besides reporting on the pathetic pace of the Poulter-Cink match, Doug Ferguson's notes include this on Jason Day's savvy gamesmanship in his win over K.T. Kim.
"I made the choice to walk in front of him all the time, to be in front of him, just to show him that I was there, show him that I'm still around, instead of walking behind him and him being in front," said Day, a 3-and-2 winner.
"So, it was a little bit of a tactic to say, 'I'm still here, I'm still going to fight and I'm going to try and win as good as I could.'"
Steve DiMeglio points out that it was not a great day for the elite American players.
The Americans had four of the top 10 seeds at Dove Mountain, and Mickelson is the only one left. Matteo Manassero (FSY), the 17-year-old Italian, became the youngest winner in this tournament with a 2-and-1 victory over eighth-seeded Steve Stricker (FSY), while Jim Furyk (FSY) (No. 10) continued his struggles in losing to Ryan Palmer (FSY), who was making his Match Play debut.
In previewing the obvious match of day two (Mickelson v. Fowler), Randall Mell quotes Phil as saying he's well rested in part because of his daily jet commute during the L.A. and Pebble Beach stops.
Jim Moriarty suggests that the wackiest match crown belongs to the Els-Overton battle.
Cink, Poulter Outted As Rude Golfers
/A few of you were shocked when I Tweeted last week about the Cink, Na grouping and the inevitable battle to see who was slowest. But as Doug Ferguson reports, the twosome of master Tweeters took over four hours (!!!!) with no golfers in front of them during the WGC Accenture Match Play first round.
Read MorePhil Wavering On Match Play; Finchem Wonders Out-Loud If He Can Dock Mickelson Brood's Allowance
/Bernie McGuire with the news that Phil Mickelson is pondering another pass on the WGC Match Play because it's a vacation week for his children.
Read MoreWGC Match Play Final Going To 18?
/I was taken aback by the policy board appearing likely to veto the designated tournaments, as reported by Sean Martin. So I went back to read it and I still can't fathom how such an intelligent policy change designed to help struggling events was nixed.
Read MoreWhat's Bugging Sergio Files, Vol. 591
/Stephanie Wei tries to get to the bottom of what exactly it was that Sergio said to Ian Poulter after his semi-final drubbing that included an odd ruling situation. The whole thing is strange in the timing of Sergio's comment to Poulter and while not particularly important, it is fun to think of these two lovebirds as teammates in September.
Read MoreFinchem: "That's just a screw-up on my part."
/No, he's not talking about the recipe he dug up for his Commissioner-hosted Southern-style pig roast at last year's Players Championship and how it left the pork a tad dry. He's actually talking about something of substance: Wednesday's horrible handling of the Tiger statement-reading announcement.
Read More"If we lose Match Play, Tucson will surely turn to dust and be blown to El Paso."
/Greg Hansen makes a plea to Accenture to keep the Match Play in Tucson beyond 2011 when they can take it elsewhere. Love the hometown spirit, but the event falls painfully flat as a form of entertainment and it's hard not to blame a soulless, spread-out and not-particularly engaging Nicklaus course as the main problem. Throw in small crowds and it just isn't working.
Read More"So it was the timing of it and the fact that Finchem just dropped everything and said, 'okay, whatever you want Tiger'. That's embarrassing when you think about it."
/John Huggan talks to a player who suggests WGC Match Play contestants were more upset with Tim Finchem than with Tiger over the timing of this week's statement reading.
Read More"When you have 30 people watching, it's not much fun." **
/That was Sergio talking to Peter Kostis after getting whalloped by Ian Poulter in the WGC semi-final match.
Read MoreTiger, The Gloves Are Off: Players Edition
/Jeff Rude on players critical of Tiger's decision to upstage the Accenture WGC Match Play, starting with Ernie Els, who has played in his last Chevron World Challenge.
Read More"Just like on television, the interview room was full of chairs, although surprisingly, most of them were empty."
/The match play gets underway tomorrow and while I couldn't find anyone writing about how they had to blow up a bunch of the Nicklaus greens to make the host course tolerable, I did enjoy a few stories. First this from John Huggan on the key to match play success:
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