The Excitement Of Match Play
What a great final match for the 112th U.S. Amateur Championship. If you were fortunate enough to watch these two players battle each other for the title, you were privileged to witness a character trait that Steven Fox, the champion, possessed. Patience. Trailing his opponent 2 down with 2 holes to play, Fox played what would be considered smart golf, and allowed his competitor to make the mistakes.
Making a birdie on the 35th hole allowed the match to continue. Fox hit is tee shot on the 36th hole into the right rough, while watching his opponent hit a great tee shot down the fairway. At this point is when Fox gave himself a fighting chance, he played the odds in his favor and just tried to get his second shot successfully on the green, and apply the pressure back to his competition, Michael Weaver. Weaver was sitting perfectly in the fairway, but pulled his approach to the far left side of the green leaving a very difficult two putt for par. Now on the green, both players faced similar putts, but after seeing Weaver run his first putt some 5 or 6 feet past the hole, all he had to do was two putt and apply the pressure back on Weaver. Fox did just that, lagging his first putt to a tap in range, and forcing Weaver to calm his nerves and make a testing putt to win the U.S. Amateur. Michael stroked a good putt, but an unfortunate wobble caused the ball to horseshoe around the hole and miss for a bogey, and a second straight lost hole. Were off to extra holes.
A reachable par 4 from the tee, hole number 1 at Cherry Hills, was made famous by Arnold Palmer for driving the green in the 1960 U.S. Open and going on to win the championship. Fox stuck to his game plan and safely played an iron from the tee and placed the ball in the center of the fairway. With the frustration from the previous two holes, and the pressure to win the championship, Weaver decided to hit driver from the tee and pulled it well to the left. Steven Fox is displaying great patience and watching as his competitor is fighting his own demons, now plays a wedge to the center of the green leaving himself a chance for birdie. Weaver feeling he must pull off a miracle shot to apply the pressure fails to get his second shot onto the green, and makes a poor chip for a third leaving a very lengthy par putt. The stage is set, and Fox steps up for the challenge and rolls in his birdie effort to clinch the title of 2012 U.S. Amateur Champion.
Match play is one of the greatest formats in competitive golf. If you’ve never had the chance to participate in the format, I would encourage you to do so. Golf is already a mental game. Yes, it does also require some physical ability, but in a competitive setting, the mental aspect is more often responsible for the outcomes of your golf game, either good or bad. Match play offers even more of a chance for the mental game to shine. You have the ability to concede your competitors next shot, or you can choose to have them hole everything out, it’s part of the gamesmanship. You can have a terrible hole, or two, and not be out of the match. I which that there were just more opportunities to participate in such events.