Do US Golf Fans Lack Appreciation for Match Play?

I have been poring over various articles this morning while trying to write columns and recaps, etc.  I made a stop over at golf.com and Golf Observer to check in with what the traditional golf media is saying about Ogilvy's big, impressive win.

The thing I keep taking away from these pieces is that - supposedly - match play is awfully boring.

First, golf.com's roundtable belabors the point.

Jim Herre: The Sunday telecast was brutal. Can't imagine who would've sat through the entire show. They should go with the semis and an 18-hole final on Sunday.

Anne Szeker, producer, Golf.com: Eek, I sat through it all! The first 18 was pretty good, but the second I could have easily done without. Had it been a more big-name, Tiger-Phil finale, I probably would have loved all 36 holes.

Jim Gorant, senior editor, Sports Illustrated Golf Plus: I always felt like the Match Play was a nice change of pace for one week of the year, but I'm over it. Even when Tiger plays, the 36-hole drone is just killer. Give me another stroke play event.

How lazy.  Some of the best golf of the tournament was played in that second 18.  Ogilvy put on a freakin' golf clinic at Casey's expense.  But somehow that's just plain boring.  Remember, these are the same people that belittled the USGA's 18 hole playoff for the US Open - that is, until Tiger Woods was in it and matched with an opponent who took him to his one-legged limit.  The golf.com site producer alluded to the fact that if it were Woods and another big name that this would have been an event.  That's awful.

Steve Elling acknowledged the real known flaw of the event.

It's tournament golf conducted in reverse -- the most electricity in stroke play comes on the weekend. In match play, the opening round often presents the most intrigue, and like a drive back to Tucson from Dove Mountain, it's all downhill from there.

Even more critical, Elling attacks the very thing I'm trying to uncover here:

For the format's immediate rewards -- every hole matters, vs. the cumulative marathon of 72 holes in stroke play -- it never has never captured our fancy in the States, where, admittedly, attention-deficit disorder reigns supreme.

Bingo.  Elling, per usual, gets it.  Americans simply just don't like match play.  It offers no guarantees.  To borrow from American legend Yogi Berra, it's not over until it's over.  The best player may not necessarily win.  In other words, the usual recognized American names are not very likely to be there in the end of a match play event. 

Americans don't play it much and don't embrace it.  Hell, the Ryder Cup only got a 2.9 rating on Sunday this past year.  And it was arguably one of the greatest for American golf fans in fifteen years. 

Of course, that means that it must be time to scrap the format, right?  Match play has clearly lost its luster after hundreds of years of play.  How did we ever do without Tiger Woods? 

Any match play event is great because it is not medal play.  Medal play is a grind.  It is often boring.  Even the players often take stretches of holes off until they get interested again in the round.  Fascinatingly, some fans and writers are demanding that exclusively.

The demand probably stems from the hope that if there are more players on the course simultaneously, that at least one will produce an interesting or newsworthy shot per minute.  That doesn't always happen on the PGA Tour.  In fact, if you go to your local Tour stop, you may well see a player shank one in the same minute that a player sticks one to a foot. 

Perhaps it boils down to educating fans on the format.  The NFL markets their game better than anyone.  They have convinced millions of Americans that mediocre football in which any team could win a Superbowl is better than football with five or ten great teams each season that should win the Superbowl.  Many golf fans here are convinced that watching 150 guys whack a ball around nonchalantly for parts of 72 holes is inherently more interesting than two players battling themselves, the course, and each other in a high intensity match.  Does anyone see the flaw with that?