The Dell Technologies Match Play is dead, at least for the foreseeable future.
AUSTIN, Texas — It’s official. The Dell Technologies Match Play is dead, at least for the foreseeable future.
Jordan Uppleger, vice president and executive director of PGA Tour championship management, made the announcement to the media on Monday at Austin Country Club.
“We’re formally announcing today that the 2023 World Golf Championship Dell Technologies Match Play will be the final playing of the event here at Austin Country Club, and not be included on the 2024 calendar or moving forward,” Uppleger said.
“The event has had an incredible run here at Austin Country Club.”
“I was told you had to have three main components to have a successful event, you had to have an active title sponsor, an engaging country club and a supporting community and client base,” he added. “And there is no doubt that this event has exceeded all of those expectations as we’ve been here since 2016.”
As part of the announcement, Uppleger added that no match-play event will be included on next year’s PGA Tour schedule.
In February, Golfweek reported that the event would be shuttered after this year’s playing. Its spot in the 2024 schedule, which is typically in late March on the back end of the Florida Swing, is expected to be filled by the Cadence Bank Houston Open, unless it prefers a date in the late April/early May timeframe instead as part of a shuffling of events.
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On Monday, Uppleger said the Tour would look to Austin again if the situation was right in the future. During the tournament’s seven-year run, the WGC event has been one of the hottest tickets on Tour, and with the picturesque Pennybacker Bridge framing the Colorado River, the setting at Austin Country Club has become among the circuit’s most indelible.
ACC has hosted the Match Play since 2016 when Dell became the title sponsor. At the time, the World Golf Championships were considered the highest-ranking tournaments in golf behind the four majors and the Players Championship, the Tour’s flagship event.
“I think you’ve seen this throughout our history. Look at the markets we’ve been in, and we’ve had to exit markets for certain reasons,” Uppleger said. “And obviously, we would look at Austin, Texas, in the future. It’s not on the ’24 calendar, but clearly look at the success that we’ve had here. There’s no doubt that our team would be looking at that.”
A match play major for men and women makes perfect sense for the good of the game, on so many levels.
Golfweek recently reported the PGA Tour’s World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play won’t return to Austin, Texas, after this year because of sponsorship issues. While it’s a shame to watch the Tour’s one match-play event drop off the schedule, it presents a golden opportunity for the USGA, PGA of America, R&A or some other body to step in with a better product than the steady barrage of stroke-play events served up week after week.
Why match play? It’s the best format for golf at all levels. It reduces stress for beginners, increases the fun factor and lowers a barrier to entry for the game. For avid golfers, match play speeds up the game and elevates camaraderie. For pro golf, various match-play formats increase strategy and heighten personalities. For course setup, match play allows for more unique hole locations and tee placement. And for daily course maintenance, it eases the burden on unrealistic and unsustainable practices in the interest of fairness.
In Scotland – where the modern game was invented – and much of the rest of the world, match play rules the day. Many club golfers typically play hole-by-hole matches, be they various two-player formats or other team events, instead of individual stroke-play events with aggregate scoring totals deciding a winner. In the Home of Golf, stroke play is frequently the oddity, not the default.
The ruling bodies that conduct top-tier professional tournaments would be well-served to look to Scotland for what could make our game better.
Unfortunately, we often take our cues from pro golf on TV. Whether it be scoring format, equipment, clothing, pre-shot routine or most importantly course conditioning, pro golf on TV has a trickle-down effect, especially in the United States. TV producers prefer stroke play events because they are, barring bad weather, typically guaranteed to end at a predetermined time to complete a broadcast window. Stroke play usually makes for a tidy product without the risk of a lopsided match ending early, leaving an hour or more of dead air on a Sunday afternoon. But this reliance on stroke play has an unhealthy impact on the game. The loss of the Dell Technologies Match Play after this year offers up a perfect opportunity for event organizers to embrace professional match play events on an even grander scale.
Match play already presents some of the most compelling golf on TV, just not at most pro events. The U.S. Amateur, U.S. Women’s Amateur plus the men’s and women’s NCAA Championship finals deliver more drama and emotion than most PGA Tour events, albeit to smaller viewing audiences.
We need look no further than the Ryder Cup, one of the most-anticipated events every two years. The passion exhibited is unique in pro golf, with teams of players from the United States and Europe squaring off in various match-play formats. It brings out the players’ personalities and often spotlights their strengths and frailties.
Imagine combining the benefits of match-play formats in a major championship. This isn’t exactly a new idea, as the PGA Championship was contested as match play until 1958. But aside from one annual PGA Tour event in recent years, the format has been cast aside for elite pros.
Now is the time for a resurgence with the advent of the Men’s & Women’s U.S. Open Match Play Championship. It would be modeled after the U.S. Amateur and open to pros and amateurs alike – just like the U.S. Open. The event would immediately become more popular than the FedEx Cup Playoffs with fans and would serve as a match-play lead-in to the biennial Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup events. Not only would this be a win for fans, it could help solve the USGA’s venue challenges.
The USGA has locked in many of the U.S. Open sites for both men and women for the next 20-plus years at a handful of venues including Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pinehurst No. 2, Oakmont, Shinnecock, Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course, Riviera, Oakland Hills, Winged Foot and Merion. Each is an amazing course with great architecture and tradition. And by repeating venues, the USGA has made the business of conducting championships easier in terms of scheduling, logistics and course setup.
However, the law of unintended consequences is that by locking in these venues, they have locked out others.
No. 5 green at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Gabe Gudgel/Golfweek)
The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, Southern Hills in Oklahoma, Inverness in Ohio and other clubs have been great hosts before and have invested to conduct more championships. They are largely locked out of the U.S. Open schedule.
Municipal venues such as Bethpage Black in New York, Torrey Pines in California and Chambers Bay in Washington (my biased choice for future U.S. Opens and Match Play events, as I helped design the site of the 2015 U.S. Open) are also shut out. And what about any new course that comes along that might be worthy to host a national championship?
Creating The U.S. Open Match Play not only opens the door to all of these venues, but many, many more.
One of the great things about the U.S. Open is it was always the toughest test in golf. The winning score historically was usually around par. But that means there are only a couple dozen venues capable of hosting the event, and even then we see the USGA changing a course from par 72 to par 70, narrowing fairways, growing rough, speeding up greens and more, all in effort to protect par.
But with match play, par doesn’t matter. All of a sudden, venues such as Chicago Golf Club, National Golf Links of America in New York or Pacific Dunes in Oregon become viable candidates on the golf course side (there are still many other factors to consider).
Creating this championship would allow the USGA to match the venue to the event better. While Oakmont and Shinnecock work well for stroke play, venues such as Los Angeles Country Club (site of this year’s U.S. Open) or Merion (site of the 2030 Open) are far better suited for match play. It would also allow the USGA to better spread out events geographically. And instead of having the U.S. Open at Pinehurst three times in nine years, the resort could host two U.S. Opens and a U.S. Open Match Play.
This same idea holds true for the women’s game. The women actually have a wider range of great venue options because a course doesn’t need to approach 8,000 yards long. A best-case scenario would be finding a way for men and women to actually compete together on the same course, as in the major championships in tennis.
If the USGA doesn’t want to charge through the door the PGA Tour has opened, I hope the PGA of America, R&A or some other group will. More match play on great venues around the world is good for golf. All of golf.
Golfweek has learned that the WGC Dell Match Play is down and running out of holes.
Rest in peace, World Golf Championships.
Golfweek has learned that this will be the final year of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin. Its spot in the 2024 schedule, which is typically in late March on the back end of the Florida Swing, is expected to be filled by the Cadence Bank Houston Open, unless it prefers a date in the late April/early May timeframe instead as part of a shuffling of events.
Efforts to reach Dell Match Play tournament director Jordan Uppleger were unsuccessful. A PGA Tour spokesman sent a statement: “As we navigate the many moving parts related to the structural changes to the 2024 PGA Tour schedule, discussions are ongoing in regards to the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play beyond this year. We remain focused on putting on an incredibly successful 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event for our fans and we expect to announce details about the future of the event when they are available.”
Austin Country Club has been the host venue for the Match Play since 2016 when Dell became the title sponsor. At the time, the World Golf Championships were considered the highest-ranking tournaments in golf behind the four majors and the Players Championship, the Tour’s flagship event.
Purses for the WGCs, which began in 1999, were elevated, the fields were limited mostly to top-ranked players, and there were no-cut events. (Tiger Woods won 18 WGCs with Dustin Johnson capturing the second most with five.)
In 2021, the number of WGC events was reduced by two with the WGC-Mexico Open being scaled back to a regular PGA Tour event and the WGC-FedEx St. Jude being converted to the first leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Scottie Scheffler holds the Walter Hagen Cup after defeating Kevin Kisner in the final of the 2022 World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club. (Photo: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports)
The demise of the WGC Match Play technically leaves the WGC-HSBC Champions as the last WGC standing but the tournament, which is contested in China, hasn’t been played since 2019 due to COVID-19. There’s no indication that the tournament will be able to be staged this year either, and the LPGA just canceled a tournament on Hainan Island in China that was scheduled for March due to “ongoing COVID-19 related matters.”
The Match Play, where Scottie Scheffler won to reach World No. 1 last spring, is one of the Tour’s new designated events this season. It will be contested in March for a tournament-record purse of $20 million, but that is also the same amount as 10 elevated tournaments, which has cheapened the WGC brand. (Having the majority of the events staged in the U.S. also made the name a misnomer.)
The PGA Tour Player Advisory Council met last Tuesday at the Farmers Insurance Open and the 2024 Tour schedule was a topic of conversation. Kevin Streelman, who is a member of the PAC, confirmed that the future of the Match Play was on the agenda.
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“They talked about that a little bit,” Streelman said. “Hopefully they can save it. It’s a sponsorship issue.”
“It’s pretty common knowledge,” he added, but noted, “there definitely hasn’t been any decision yet.”
However, multiple sources have told Golfweek that a decision has been made and a high-ranking executive that oversees the Tour’s Championship Management department already told the staff in Austin to “start boxing things up.”
Merchandise from the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club. (Tim Schmitt/Golfweek)
The Tour sent Austin Country Club a proposal more than four months ago and ACC pushed back hard, countering with an exorbitant increase to its site fee and ticket demands for its members. The Tour balked and for several months there was no communication between the two parties. It didn’t help matters that the membership was split with a sizable camp that thought the event had run its course there. According to one source, ACC came to its senses and tried to re-engage, but the Tour went “radio silent” for four months. Two weeks ago, ACC sent the Tour an unsolicited proposal agreeing to the Tour’s original terms and to extend the deal by an additional two years.
“I heard it didn’t go well,” said a PGA Tour tournament director for another event, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his relationship with both parties. “They’re out of there.”
It’s not too often that the Tour pulls up stakes and leaves a city unless a sponsor flees and doing so is the last resort. But a source says that in August, the Tour turned down Intel, which Dell wanted as a partner, to serve as the presenting sponsor. The chipmaker was ready to sign on the dotted line for five years for somewhere between $5 million to $8 million per year. But the Tour, perhaps knowing that its schedule must evolve to counter the attack of LIV Golf, the upstart league, would only commit to one year. No deal was made.
As previously reported by Golfweek, Jim Crane, the billionaire owner of the Houston Astros, has been playing hard ball in hopes of getting the Houston stop back into the main schedule, preferably with a spring date. The CJ Cup, which originated in South Korea in 2017 but has been played in the U.S. since the pandemic and was held most recently in South Carolina in October, also is itching to upgrade its dates from the fall schedule. The Tour has yet to release its schedule for next season but the loss of the Match Play could mean at least one less designated event in 2024, or its replacement in the schedule could be elevated.
“The Tour is not going to go away from doing a match play,” a tournament director said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see it resurface elsewhere.”
But for now, it appears the Match Play is down and running out of holes.
