[Spiny_Norman]

Any championship where Stanford is involved is interesting to me.  

But I hate the switch to match play in the middle of the championship. It's just a way to introduce randomness at the very end of the tournament.  It would be like baseball, after playing the entire season with cumulative scoring, suddenly switching to inning match play halfway through the playoffs.  The Giants could lose game seven for the National League pennant with a total score of 20-5 by outscoring the hated Doyers 5-0 in four innings and being outscored 1-0 in five innings, thus losing the match-play game and pennant because we want randomness at the crucial portion of the playoffs.  Ridiculous.  

I will be watching or following the scoreboard at work as long as Stanford is in it though.  

Cheers,
Pete F.

Pete - match and medal play have both been in use for golf championships for 160 years. They are both legitimate and recognized forms of competition. In baseball, there is really only one way to play.

I think that match play was added primarily for television. The Golf Channel would offer money to televise the event if it could be assured of more drama to keep people interested. As a bonus, the final day of stroke play and the 2 match play days are on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when Golf Channel is not televising pro events. A win-win for them. The fans have loved it. It's been so successful for the men (who started playing this format in 2009) that the women followed suit 6 years later in 2015. In the 7 years since then, 6 different schools have won. The men have had 10 different schools win in 13 years. In short, I think the medal-match play format has been great for growing interest in the game.

[Spiny_Norman]

Any championship where Stanford is involved is interesting to me.  

But I hate the switch to match play in the middle of the championship. It's just a way to introduce randomness at the very end of the tournament.  It would be like baseball, after playing the entire season with cumulative scoring, suddenly switching to inning match play halfway through the playoffs.  The Giants could lose game seven for the National League pennant with a total score of 20-5 by outscoring the hated Doyers 5-0 in four innings and being outscored 1-0 in five innings, thus losing the match-play game and pennant because we want randomness at the crucial portion of the playoffs.  Ridiculous.  

I will be watching or following the scoreboard at work as long as Stanford is in it though.  

Cheers,
Pete F.

Pete - match and medal play have both been in use for golf championships for 160 years. They are both legitimate and recognized forms of competition. In baseball, there is really only one way to play.

I think that match play was added primarily for television. The Golf Channel would offer money to televise the event if it could be assured of more drama to keep people interested. As a bonus, the final day of stroke play and the 2 match play days are on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when Golf Channel is not televising pro events. A win-win for them. The fans have loved it. It's been so successful for the men (who started playing this format in 2009) that the women followed suit 6 years later in 2015. In the 7 years since then, 6 different schools have won. The men have had 10 different schools win in 13 years. In short, I think the medal-match play format has been great for growing interest in the game.