Question of the week [May 15-21]: Should the PGA Championship return to a match-play format like it was from the tournament's debut in 1916 through 1957?
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Yes, the PGA should return to match play. This would return the tournament to its origins. It would no longer be U.S. Open light. It would differentiate itself from other majors. It would bring about change the tour desperately needs since LIV Golf exposed the players as a boring tour of elites.
Matthew Fenn
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
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In my humble opinion, match play is by far the most boring part of the game.
I've been playing golf for about 60 years and I have always felt my biggest competitor was always the course itself. You beat the course and everything else takes care of itself.
The individualism of the game has always been the attractiveness to me. No matter whether there are partners to play with or not, I'm always confronted with the task of beating my greatest opponent and that will always be the course. To shoot a 74 and lose to an appointment that shoots a 76 or more does nothing for me. I believe the competition should be judged over 18 holes. When you're done you add them up and the lowest amongst you wins.
Reward the best player over 18 holes and not some contrived game of who won the most holes. Otherwise why have 18 holes.
Robert Fish
Sun Lakes, Arizona
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I think returning the PGA Championship to match play would be a TV ratings killer. As a fan, I would hate to see some of my favorite players be eliminated on Day 1 from a hot round of a low-ranked player or a poor round of their own. In four rounds, a player has a chance to recover from a poor round and compete for the championship. That’s rarely the case in match play.
Barry Duckworth
Knoxville, Tennessee
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No way, and this comes from a fairly decent golfer who really likes match-play tournaments. Still, what we want to determine in a major is who is the best golfer in the field over a period of time, and not for just one day. Say Emilio Grillio plays and beats Scottie Scheffler on Day 1, and a couple of other semi-significant upsets occur, which they will. Then, get to the quarterfinals. Some of those matches simply won't draw much excitement from the TV watchers or the sponsers who paid too much to advertise their product in the first place.
Perhaps a reasonable solution would be to take a page from the USGA Senior Amateur Championship — and a few others like this — and have a 36-hole medal-play tournament, and then go to a two-day match play with there being four rounds played by the winner and runner up — meaning a couple of guys would play four rounds in two days.
Tom Powers
Bradenton, Florida
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