Jon Rahm has called on the PGA Tour to continue to hold a match play tournament, with the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play set for its final edition in Texas this week.
The match play event - alongside the rest of the World Golf Championships - is set to be cut from the PGA Tour schedule ahead of the circuit's revamp in 2024. The tournament has always proved to be a fan and player favourite, due to it being the only week using the match play format across the season.
Despite this, it is set to be no more when the Tour brings in its new elevated and limited field competitions from the beginning of 2024.
One man who hopes match play golf will not be scrapped off the schedule for good is 10-time PGA Tour winner Rahm. Speaking ahead of this week's tournament, he said: "I'm excited. I love match play. It's too bad that this is the last edition of this tournament.
"I'm hoping maybe it's just a one-year deal and we get a match play event back on the schedule. It's really the only time throughout the year besides maybe the Ryder Cup where you're playing truly against the person in front of you."
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"That is much more relatable to every sport we play in the world, which is basically about just playing better than the team in front." He went on: "I'm sure there's a solution to it. I'm sure there's a way around it, because I think we should have a match play event every single season."
One man who is of the same opinion and also has a love for the format is Rahm's rival at the top of the world rankings Scottie Scheffler. The American is back in his home state this week, and is defending the WGC title in which he won 12 months ago.
Would you like to see the match play format remain on the PGA Tour schedule? Let us know in the comments section below.
Scheffler commented: "I love match play. I like the simplicity of it. All you have to do is just go out there and try and beat the guy that’s in front of you and if you don’t, you lose, and if you beat him, you win. So the simplicity of it is what I enjoy...
"“Throughout the year, I think match play is a good change of pace. Commercially, I don’t know how well it works when it comes to TV and only having so many guys on the golf course on the weekend. So we’ll see what happens in the future."
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