“That’s it, I’ve seen it all. I mean, if Arnold Palmer drove by on a scooter….” His incredulous voice trailed away: for once, David Feherty had no words to describe what he’d just seen. I immediately thought of Lee Trevino, mentally gone and certain of defeat, chopping at his ball with barely a practice swing yet chipping in for par at the 71st hole of the 1972 Open Championship at Muirfield. When the short par putt found the hole, Nick Faldo simply and gracefully remarked, “One of the greatest up-and-downs.”
And then, one hole later, the same thing happened again. I’ve now watched Victor Dubuisson’s par saves at the 19th and 20th holes of this year’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship final at least 30 times on YouTube, and I doubt I’ll ever see two shots by the same player in the same sudden-death playoff to rival Dubuisson’s two whacks at the Arizona desert. One part skill, seven parts luck and two parts Gallic insouciance cooked up a combined memory which will stay with me as long as matchplay golf exists – it’s as though God was trying to pay back the French with interest for what He did to Jean van de Velde at Carnoustie.
Funny thing is, I’d honestly never heard of Victor Dubuisson before that week in Tuscon. In my defense, Dubuisson is only 23, and his only European Tour victory came in Turkey last November while I was watching the LSU-Alabama repeat on ESPN. But he’d earned his place in the Match Play field on merit, and 1-up victories over Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell and Ernie Els led him into the final against Jason Day, who like Paul Lawrie at Carnoustie will likely be remembered less in victory than Dubuisson and van de Velde are in defeat.
Or at least, that’s how I wish the 2014 final would be remembered. Alas, I’m not sure it will be remembered at all, as the Match Play Championship remains the ugly stepsister of the World Golf Championship rota. The 2014 event had no Tiger Woods, no Phil Mickelson and no Adam Scott, and as yet the 2015 event has no title sponsor and no venue – many players disliked Dove Mountain, an otherwise attractive matchplay course prone to chilly weather and even spoiled in 2013 by a blanket of snow. Television loathes matchplay for many reasons; despite his later heroics, nobody really wanted to see Victor Du-who? reach the final. This year’s four brackets were won by their #2, #7, #8 and #14 seeds, and in 2002 the Final Four were seeded #7, #12, #12 and – the eventual winner – #16. March Madness this ain’t.
So, short of guaranteeing a spot in the final for Tiger, Phil, Adam or Rory (note to self: don’t give Tim Finchem any ideas), how do we save professional matchplay golf outwith the Ryder Cup? Medal-matchplay, aka head-to-head strokeplay of the type now only seen in US Open playoffs, may be one solution. A Europa League-like consolation event for first-round losers offering world ranking points, and more golf to fill otherwise dead air on television, might be another. I just hope the PGA Tour is brave enough to experiment with and even expand the same head-to-head, one-on-one concept played so often by so many of us. The current state of high-level matchplay may look hopeless, but as my new favorite Frenchman just proved, sometimes desperate lunges can yield results of exquisite beauty.