The "Ultimate" Match Play PGA Championship?

The August editions of the various golf magazines are hitting my mailbox. And that means PGA Championship preview issues. And that means the annual rite: At least one of those magazines will include an article calling for the PGA Championship to return to match play.

And one of those this year is Golf Magazine, whose short article is entitled, "The ultimate match play championship." There are many reasons why the PGA Championship will never revert to match play, and Golf acknowledges the biggest one: the TV networks aren't interested. Still, the magazine prints its proposal, offering it with these words: "Here's our plan for how the PGA can become the major everyone is talking about."

It's crazy talk, is what the mag's proposal is. Ridiculous. But give 'em points for originality.

Here's how Golf's PGA Championship match play format would work:

• The Top 64 players in the world rankings are in the field.
• They are divided into four brackets of 16 players each.
• On Day 1, each player in each bracket plays three six-hole matches. On Day 2, each player plays another three six-hole matches (each of the six matches against a different player in his bracket). So six six-hole matches on the first two days.
• Players earn points for winning a match (and presumably half-points for halving, the magazine doesn't specifically map out its points plan).
• The top 16 point earners - four from each bracket - move on to Day 3, where each plays nine-hole matches against the other three survivors from his bracket.
• Only the top four overall - the four bracket winners - move on to Day 4, where they each play the other three in nine-hole matches.

Crazy talk. Too "Big Break"-ish. But interesting. Golf gets an "A" for at least proposing something original.