"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.

These insecurities became manifest about 10:47 a.m. Saturday when sunshine was replaced by a wintry mix of hail, rain and wind estimated by finalist Ian Poulter as "blowing 30 mph."

About 1,000 revelers camped at the Walter Hagen Club put down their bloody marys and headed for home. Hours later, as Paul Casey and Camilo Villegas played into the darkness, on-site attendance was probably no more than 1,500.

Hansen also reveals that the course was much better received this year by players thanks in part to this;

 In 2009, many players, including Tiger, had a litany of complaints about "tricked up" greens. The Ritz people acted swiftly; by April, they had reworked and modified 17 of 18 greens at a cost near $100,000.

"They're flawless now," said quarterfinalist Stewart Cink.