The Pure Exhilaration of Matchplay Golf

Matchplay is the most exhilarating form of contest in golf.  Two golfers go out on the course, shake hands, and over the next set number of holes, it is head-to-head, one-on-one, mano-a-mano.  It is surely built around skill, but has elements of strategy, confidence and mental strength.  

There are two ways to win a hole.  As the first player, you can either go aggressive - attempt the killer shot, get it right and put the pressure on your opponent to do the same, or play the conservative shot and wait for your opponent to do the opposite and make a mistake.  The player that goes second also has to choose.  If the first player has played himself into trouble, you can either play the "normal" shot, or lay it up.  Its not easy to change from the "normal" way of playing - to stick a club back in the bag and ask for a pitching wedge when you feel you can make the original shot.  Just ask Jean van de Velde in the Open Championship in 1999.  

A scratch golfer also explained to me the concept of momentum, which is really confidence.  He told me that he had lost an 18 hole match after leading 6 holes.  He had started to feel sorry for his opponent and lost the competitive edge.  This allowed his opponent to nick a couple of holes.  Then the opponent started to get the rub of the green - a lucky bounce - and things changed.  As his confidence waned, his opponent's grew and that by itself decided the match.  On another occasion, when he was 4 down at the tee box of the 15th hole, his opponent declared to him, "I guess its over".  He simply said that there were still four holes to play.  He went on to win the next five holes, winning the match on the first extra hole.  His lesson : its not over till the last putt is rolled in.  Close out the game as soon as you can.  Have no mercy.  Don't feel sorry for your opponent.  "Its part of the game."    

The 2013 Jagorawi Club Championship first playoff round was my first taste of serious matchplay, having qualified for it for the first time.   My opponent on record had a lower handicap and has had the experience of playing in the tournament multiple times.   We shook hands and off we went on the Old Course.  By the 9th hole, I was 4 down.  I wasn't feeling particularly nervous or bad, as I wasn't favoured to win. I was enjoying the experience with marshals trailing us.  He started talking, in a matter of fact kind of way, about who he would meet in the next round.  I said I would still do my best to catch him.  

And then the momentum changed.  I stuck my approach on the 10th for a tap in birdie.  My opponent congratulated me - like "good you won a hole."  On the next hole, a 198m par 3, I landed the ball within six feet of the pin.  He sliced his tee to the right, short sided the green, and was on the green for three.  He conceded the hole without putting.  On the next hole, I landed the ball safely on the fairway while he landed it in the bunker.  I approached the hole from 168m, and struck an ugly fading shot.  It was heading for the greenside bunker.  But it took a lucky bounce, deflected left and landed 4 feet from the hole.  I apologised.  He hardly acknowledged this.  He only got it on for three from the fairway bunker and lost the hole.    On the next par 3 hole, I landed off the green while he landed his 30 feet from the hole.  I chipped it for a gimme.  He putted and left himself a 3 footer.  He took a long time over the ball and missed.  

He lost 4 consecutive holes and we were level.  

The momentum had swung completely my way.  He was driving and approaching exquisitely in the first nine.  This disappeared.  He started to draw the ball excessively, and his irons were a little less sharp.  By the 15th hole, I was one up as he drove clipping the trees.  I then made an elementary mistake on the 16th hole.  I started to believe I could do no wrong.  A bogey let him back in at level.  On the 17th, he watched me sink a three footer to keep the match level on the 18th tee.  

On the 18th, I did not feel a single bit of pressure.  We both drove on the fairway, he out drove me by perhaps 30m.  I studied the 180m approach to the elevated green, perhaps a 200m shot in total with OB on the right and sand traps on the left.  I rejected the 3 wood my caddie Gode offered and went with the 5 wood to lay up to keep the ball in play, which I did.  I knew this would encourage my opponent to go for it and win the match.  He had a 150m + 20m elevation, 170m shot off a sloping fairway.  He did as expected and  sliced it to the right.  Both of us had a 30m pitch.  I went first again and landed my six feet from the hole.  He landed his five feet from the hole.  

My caddie indicated a break a little further outside than I would have thought.  But we have played so often together that I knew he was probably right.  I rolled the ball, and on the last roll, the ball dipped into the cup from the side.  My opponent who had an easier five foot putt acknowledged the putt.  But he must have thought, "The injustice of it all!  I was leading by four holes.  He  had a lucky bounce on the 12th hole, and then he manages to roll a dying putt on the 18th that had no right to go in?"  He missed his putt by some distance.  I had played a one over second nine.  He shot a six over.    

I did feel sorry for my opponent after the match. He is a nice, gracious man and in the end, is a much better golfer than I am.  I am sure he will beat me again and again in social golf.  But the lesson is this.     Strategy counts and this depends on understanding what your opponent is likely to do and his likelihood of pulling it off.  Secondly, in matchplay golf, it is a crime to think about the next match before you close the current one out.  Momentum is a killer.  Have no mercy.  Its part of the game.