Harding Park As A Match Play Venue? Please, No!
/I'm all for Harding Park as a site of a future playoff event or a Schwab Cup or even a Presidents Cup, but while it seems to be falling off the radar for the WGC Match Play in future years, Ron Kroichick says the tour wants to take the event to San Francisco.
This, despite potentially awful weather in February and most all, the course's complete unsuitability for creating interesting match play golf.
The tour, by most accounts, wants to bring the Match Play Championship to Harding Park next year. The contract to hold the event at Dove Mountain, outside Tucson, Ariz., ends after this year’s edition, which began today and runs through Sunday. Tour officials have talked to their San Francisco counterparts about possibly moving the tournament here.
But the tour apparently is still trying to find a title sponsor willing to supply the money ($9 million this year) and hold the event at Harding Park. That’s a sizable hurdle, to say the least.
I noted in this GolfDigest.com item that many things have to happen to save this important event, starting with match play-friendly venues and format tweaks. This event can be saved and be even better.
