Pond Scrum: As unique events go, this one is unmatched

With this pair, what follows should serve as a nice primer for the rest of the week.
That is, two guys taking swipes at each other, head to head, over common ground. And sort of like the tournament itself, win or lose, they both get paid.
With the season's most novel event at hand in the Accenture Match Play Championship, the protagonists of our weekly Pond Scrum discussion take their hacks at the game, each other and whatever perceived obstacles stand in their way, be it a cactus or other thorny issue.
They scribble. They quibble. European Tour correspondent John Huggan, who grew up practicing the art of match play, and CBSSports.com senior writer Steve Elling, who surely didn't, take the measure of each other as the season's biggest event to date takes shape outside of Tucson, Ariz.
There's only one rule with this twosome -- no concessions.
Gents, you have the tee.

OK, you two alleged aficionados, for the less-initiated, explain why the Accenture Match Play is such a departure from the professional norm and well worth watching this week. Also, each of you identify the player to beat this week. Huggan, you first.

Huggan: We see match play almost every week in professional golf. But it is disguised as the last nine holes of a four-day stroke-play event. In other words, stroke play only becomes interesting when it morphs into match play. It epitomizes what all sport is about at its core: winning and losing. And the guy to beat this week? The one right there in front of you -- no one else matters.

Elling: Personally, I like the finality of it. While most Americans never play the game casually -- hey, golf costs a fortune over here and the last thing we want to do is have a match end with four holes left -- it's an invigorating change to see players get kicked to the curb by less-heralded players. The first day of Accenture annually produces a slew of upsets.

Huggan: The only people who don't like match play are television executives afraid of "shock" results.
Elling: Not the only people, but they surely influence the format decisions. I think you put it best the other day. In an era when finishing second or third is looked upon as a hugely successful week, at match play, a guy has to actually look in the mirror and say, "I lost." Or at least, 63 of them will.
Huggan: Match play is the game of the people, especially where I come from. The vast majority of golf played in Scotland on any given day is match play. Adding up numbers on cards? Boring.
Elling: I think they've gone a long way toward fixing the TV issues. They will show the semis and finals on Sunday this year, and the finale has been trimmed from 36 to 18 holes. Hey, we have shorter attention spans these days. A 36-hole finale left the possibility of having 90 minutes of dead air to fill on TV if the match ended early.
Huggan: I agree with the shortening of the final. If one guy got off to a fast start in the morning, the second round could be both uneventful and short.

A worker cleans up a bracket display Monday as practice rounds begin in Marana, Ariz. (AP)

Huggan: One more thing about match play: It's always amusing to we non-Americans to see how ignorant so many top players are when it comes to the rules of match play. I am always reminded of Tom Lehman vs. Seve Ballesteros in the 1995 Ryder Cup when Tom insisted on tapping in when Seve asked him to mark his ball. What Tom did not realize is that your opponent is "in charge" of your ball on the green.
Elling: The most consistent criticism of the format is that it can produce vanilla finalists that don't interest viewers. How that varies from many other Sunday stroke-play events, I have no idea. There are plenty during the season where no-names or less-heralded players win, no? I thought sports fans liked underdogs. Given the general popularity of the format in Ryder and this particular event, should match play be used more often? It used to be the format at the PGA Championship, 50 years ago.
Huggan: I think one of the four majors should be match play. In fact, if we started again tomorrow, my four would be: Open, U.S. Open, Players and a World Match Play that travelled the globe.
Elling: I think somebody in Augusta, Ga., just read that sentence and threw your credential application in the trash can.
Huggan: I always apply under assumed names. This year I made up a really daft name: Elling.
Elling: One more twist that would make match play more interesting: Bring back the stymie. Just kidding. Well, mostly. There would be a homicide if they used stymies. Which might help NBC's ratings.
Huggan: Stymies would be fun and bring back some shotmaking into the game. No bad thing!
Which was more impressive, the steady performance of winner Aaron Baddeley on Sunday or the continued comeback of warhorse Vijay Singh, who had largely been written off and left for dead?

Huggan: Baddeley was anything but steady. Which is how he used to play before he stumbled into the stack-and-tilt swing mode, aka the wilderness years. His move back to coach Dale Lynch is the best thing he could have done. He played like the young Baddley at Riviera.

Elling: I will be completely honest here. I thought Vijay was on a one-way trip back to the jungles of Borneo. I thought he was done. He had two top 10s last year and the alibis for his poor play didn't make a lot of sense to me. Now he has two top-three finishes this month and looks like he's very capable of winning again. In terms of tenacity, the guy has what it takes in spades. Nobody ever wanted it more. Nobody.

Huggan: Vijay is living on borrowed time. I still don't think he can putt well enough for four days to contend at a major. Hell of a ball-striker, though.
Elling: Forget the majors. Vijay would take a "minor" at this point. He turns 48 on Tuesday. He might have a Kenny Perry streak left in him.
Huggan: Vijay is an incredible story. It's just a shame he won't engage with the press more than he does. Of course, he knows what the third question is going to be.
Elling: And the fourth, fifth, and sixth.
Huggan: Vijay Singh: former Edinburgh nightclub bouncer.
Elling: Badds has long been one of my favorite kids. He and Adam Scott came on the scene at the same time, and I can still recall my first interaction with the two of them. To this day, they are among my favorite people in the game. Polite, deferential, not a whiff of ego, hearts in the right place. Badds waited behind the 18th green at Torrey Pines to congratulate winner Bubba Watson three weeks ago. You don't often see that these days. Glad to see he has found his game again after the stack-and-tilt experiment didn't pan out. Hmmmm. isn't Tiger using a variation on that swing?
Huggan: I think he is, which is why he is getting more ink for his gobbing than his golf. ... You make Baddeley and Scott sound just like Anthony Kim -- not.
Speaking of the star-crossed one, Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the Tiger Woods apology in Ponte Vedra Beach, where between rehab stints, he said he planned to "make my behavior more respectful of the game." A year later, has anything changed?

Huggan: Tiger has always managed to keep any respect he has for the game well hidden. In that, he hasn't changed. Not even a little bit. And some of his recent actions have betrayed his contempt for his fellow competitors, too. Call me cynical, but if Tiger's lips are moving, then he's probably lying. Very few of his public utterances stand up to even the mildest scrutiny.

Elling: After 12 months of watching him pretty closely -- remember, he asked to be graded in deportment -- here are the results. Tiger is better with fans during the early rounds and pro-ams. He signs a few more autographs, maybe even poses for a photo here or there. But when the weekend rolls around, he goes right back into default competitive mode. He seems genetically incapable of changing it. The tour is clearly complicit in his poor behavior. By refusing to announce fines, they sanction his outbursts. They effectively cover it up.

Huggan: Yes, the European Tour did the right thing when they announced that Tiger would be fined for the spitting incident in Dubai. Theirs is a lead the PGA Tour would do well to follow. But until they turn around and ban the man, they might as will do nothing. Fining Tiger is pointless.
Elling: It's not really the money, John. I get that. It's the criticism. Nobody knew how much he was fined by the E-Tour for the loogie in Dubai. It was the fact that he was paddled in the public square and embarrassed. He had to apologize. He was chastened. To a minor degree, but still.
Huggan: I wonder who wrote the apology? Maybe the same guy who wrote all those instructional tips for Tiger and Golf Digest.
Elling: Well, it was only 140 characters, so I am fairly sure he dug deep and thumbed it out himself.
The PGA Tour finally realized it was fighting a losing battle and green-lighted cell phones for fans, starting next week at the Honda Classic. Is this an unwise move, or overdue?

Elling: We all know what's going to happen next. A phone is going to ring, Steve Williams is going to decapitate somebody, and a tournament result is going to be affected. Ask John Cook, who once lost the Sony Open when a cell phone rang at the top of his swing deep in the back nine, and he skanked one sideways. It's inevitable and unavoidable.

Huggan: Overdue move. I have to say I get a little tired of players who ask for complete silence before they will even deign to pull a club from the bag. They somehow manage to make contact on the range when all manner of sounds can be heard around them. What's the difference on the course? If we allow constant noise, the sudden noise will have way less influence on events.

Elling: How is this for deep irony? The new cell phone protocols begin at the Honda Classic, which is where a fan took an unsanctioned photo of John Daly at the top of his swing a few years back. He tore up his ribcage and says he has not been the same since. Cameras, ringing phones, whatever the case, there are going to be issues. Daly, by the way, sued over the injury.
Huggan: If the phone is already ringing when you start the club back, it shouldn't have any effect on the quality of the shot. As Peter Dobereiner used to say: Get on with it, you plonkers. Pro golfers are way too precious.
Elling: Has a tour players ever worn earplugs? Ian Poulter listens to music on the range on his ear buds. The noise issue is something casual fans cannot understand. It's not the noise that unnerves the pros -- it's the blast of noise emanating from the calm. It's like a gunshot in church. And it's going to happen. Over the years, fans in South Florida have flaunted the former cellphone ban more than at any other tour stops.
Huggan: So get rid of the calm. The cell phone battle is not one the game can win. So let's at least make the best of it.
Kevin Na is perhaps the best veteran on the PGA Tour without a victory, but he remains a polarizing figure to many of his peers. Why is that?

Elling: We're recapping here, but last spring, Golf Magazine ran the results of a poll of 70 tour players, who were asked which player they would most like to see miss a 3-footer on the last hole to lose a major. The leading vote-getters were Tiger and Na.

Huggan: Could it have something to do with the fact that he is an irritatingly slow player that any sane golfer would want to physically assault inside of three holes? I'd pay good money to see Rory Sabbatini drawn with Na and Ben Crane.

Elling: That's just part of the equation. Na comports himself like a guy who has already won a slew of events. He's cocky. He complains at the slightest perception of a bad break. Remember when he buried his club in the ground on the 18th tee at the Tour Championship last year, when he blew a chance to win? Kevin Na is a terrific player -- but not as good as he thinks he is.
Huggan: Na did show the good side of his character during the last round at Riviera. When Baddeley holed a snake early in the back nine, Na could be seen encouraging the ball to drop with some body language. He smiled and shook his head when the ball did drop in. A true sportsman at that moment.
Elling: It's not just the way he manifestly behaves. It's posture. It's the vibe that radiates from him at times. Na would be well-advised to throttle down the whole persecution act. It's surely not helping him seal the deal on Sundays. But no question, the slow-play theatrics are infuriating for his peers. That's got to lead the list of grievances.
Huggan: He does have a great name for autographs. Maybe Tiger should shorten his surname as a first move toward signing more often.
Dustin Johnson has managed a rare double-whammy in a span of six months. He was forced to add two penalty strokes after his final round at the PGA Championship and two before he'd hit a shot when he arrived late to the tee for the first round at Riviera. Impressions?

Huggan: One: he needs a new caddie. Two: he needs a new brain.

Elling: His caddie, who was supposed to be tracking Johnson's tee time and got it wrong, is taking most of the heat. Bobby Brown seems a capable sort, but his big-league tour experience is somewhat limited compared to some. He looped for Eric Axley for a while. This is going to put the two of them under more of a microscope and rightly so. It's dunderheaded.

Huggan: These things happen, but there is never a decent excuse. One can only imagine what D.J. will do to complete the set: a two-shot penalty for taking too long in the halfway hut ordering hot dogs?
Elling: Ultimately, though, even a loosely wrapped sort like Johnson needs to grab the steering wheel on important matters like tee times. Don't delegate that responsibility to somebody else. It's far too important. Maybe he next gets zapped for having 15 clubs in the bag? You are right, these things happen. Fluff Cowan had 15 clubs in the bag two years ago at a FedEx event and Jim Furyk got penalized.
Huggan: This is perhaps indicative of the entitled-brat culture that is alive and well in a world where people make more than $70,000 for finishing outside the top 20. Does any one week outside of the majors really matter? Hey. there's another $5 million to play for next week.
Elling: If there's one thing of which I am certain, it's that Johnson is already over it. If the blimp crashed on his head during the third round, he'd come back on Sunday and never look up. In many regards, short memories are helpful.
Huggan: True. But is so frustrating to watch that much talent going to waste.
The European Tour event last weekend had exactly two players ranked in the world top 100 in the field and none inside the top 70. What happened to all that crowing about E-Tour superiority and firepower?

Huggan: No one ever said that the ET has overtaken the PGA Tour, and the ET is only competitive at certain times of the year. This is not one of those times. Whether anyone likes it or not, the center of the golfing universe from now through the Masters is the United States. Get back to me after that.

Elling: There's ebb and flow to the season. Right now, and for the next few weeks, the varsity is on full display in the States. Even the Honda Classic has commitments from three of the top seven in the world and it's considered the least impactful of the four Florida Swing stops. Still, it was interesting watching those guys slog it out in India. It certainly had a compelling ending.

Huggan: Yes, the player who choked, Robert Coles, is a lovely lad. But he didn't half let it get away from him over the last two holes. Losing to someone called Chowrasia can't have helped either. The event did have one thing going for it. A man in a turban finished in the top 10. Beat that America!
Elling: Coles had one of the more painful 72nd-hole derailments ever. Bad chip, bad lag putt, bad bogey. But it made for edge-of-the-couch watching.
You guys never got around to naming a winner this week at the Accenture Match Play. How about it? After an All-England final last year, can we expect more of the same from the international contingent?

Huggan: I always like Geoff Ogilvy at the match play. Twice a winner and once the runner-up, he's a tough cookie. Helped by the fact that he holes out so well from close range. Never underestimate that in match play, where opponents gain encouragement from you missing two-footers.

Elling: I am not exactly going to crawl out on a limb here. Paul Casey has made the final in each of the last two years at match play and has already won this year on the European Tour. He lives in nearby Scottsdale. Do you think the Dane takes down Woods in the first-rounder? Tiger is the best practitioner of match play in the world, arguably.

Huggan: The Tiger of old certainly was. Not so sure about this one, though. His putting, like I said, is liable to provide Bjorn with some encouragement, which is not good. You never want your opponent thinking he can win in match play.
Elling: That's the wonder of match play. Bjorn has already won this year, and the last time Woods entered this event, he got whacked by pea-shooting Tim Clark, the mighty mite. If a stroke-play event is a marathon, match play can be more of a sprint.
Huggan: Anything can happen, as Tiger knows all too well. Remember Peter O'Malley and Nick O'Hern (twice)?
Elling: That's why it's the most novel event in the world. Players fly halfway around the world to play the best in the game and get kicked to the curb after one day, if not 15 or 16 holes. Game on, game over.