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On Thursday, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan finally broke the news: The PGA Tour will not have a match-playing event in 2024.
“I heard that comment, and it’s something we’re well aware of and it’s helpful. But I think as we move on from WGC Dell Match Play and think about ’24, I think it’s very unlikely that we’ll have a match play event in ’24,” Monahan said. SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. “Do I see the match returning to the PGA Tour? Absolutely. I hope that is the case.”
The information did not come as a surprise. The demise of regular tour play had been predicted from the moment news broke that the event would not be returning to Austin in 2024. Given the general turmoil of the tour schedule, soon finding a new partner for the tour’s only annual match play event seemed unlikely. There will still be the Boss Cup, which was more than enough in the meantime.
Match play is an inherently challenging job proposition in professional golf. For TV partners, dwindling field sizes and the threat of big names leaving leave limited patience. For tournament hosts, the same factors work against ticket sales and attendance machinations.
But it was clear, at least, that on the same day Monahan gave Monahan a dim view of the immediate future of match play on the PGA Tour, his LPGA Tour siblings were holding their own match-playing event.
Five years have passed since then Crown International — a biannual match-playing event pitting national teams against each other — was contested on the LPGA, a function of both the pandemic and the financial and logistical difficulties it brought about.
But in 2023, the International Crown is back in the fold with renewed juice. The 32 players represent some of the best the game has to offer, from South Korean superstars Jin Young-koo and Angie Chun to Americans like Nelly Korda, Daniel Kang and Lexi Thompson, and Europeans like Magdeleine Sagström and Anna Nordqvist. In all, six of the top 10 players in the world attended the event. A star-studded clash of both former major winners and rising stars. Unlike in past years, the event will take place on a public golf course (TPC Harding Park) in the heart of a major metropolitan area (San Francisco). Harding Park hosted the PGA Championship just three years ago which added to the buzz.
The shape of the International Crown was simple. Teams of four players from eight countries (USA, Sweden, China, England, Thailand, Australia, Japan and South Korea) will be divided into two groups and compete in two four-ball days. From there, the top four contestants will advance to the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, the top four teams will meet and face each other in two singles matches and one alternate match. The two semi-final winners will advance to the finals, where they will repeat the process one more time, until a winner is crowned.
As the weekend progressed, so did the excitement. The United States and Sweden, two expected powerhouses, easily escaped by one side of the eight-team pool-playing group. While on the other hand, an early upset created a shock during the event when Thailand and Australia knocked out the heavy favorites the Koreans on consecutive days.
The sudden frenzy only grew on the weekend when Australia and Thailand beat the United States and Sweden in the semi-finals, setting the stage for a Group B rematch between the South Pacific nations in the finals. In the end, Team Thailand – led by the Jutanugarn sisters, world No. 4 Athaya Thetikul and No. 57 Patti Tavatanakit – proved to be juggernauts, sweeping the underdogs Australians in the final round to claim the title and going 11-1-0 in the process. All theatrical tournament.
It was a momentous victory for Team Thailand, who claimed their first title at the event, but an even bigger win for the tournament format, which was won by both players and away fans over the course of the weekend.
“I would say when I grow up, when I become a professional, I always want to inspire the kids back home,” Ariya Jutanugarn said afterwards. “At the moment I feel better because I’m not alone now, I have Patty, Athaya and Mo, and we’ll continue to do the same.”
This, it seems, is the benefit of an event like the International Crown – the kind of dramatic, team-based competition one can rarely find outside of match play in the world of professional golf. This is why so many fans want the Solheim Cup, Chiefs, and Ryder Cups, and why many were disappointed when the Tour announced the imminent demise of Dell Technologies (even if Austin was more focused on solo than the aforementioned first-team competitions).
Of course, the men’s game will have plenty of match-making opportunities in the future. We’re only a few months away from the Ryder Cup, and who knows, maybe another match-playing event will find its way onto the PGA Tour schedule in 2025. In the meantime, though, we’d recommend the Tour brass take a long look at the competition that ended at Harding Park after Sunday afternoon. As golf’s global stature has grown, the International Crown has proven to be high-calibre, high-fun entertainment…and not just for the masses.
“We had more good vibes, and I think we just had fun,” Teticul said. “We really had fun there, especially in the training sessions and tournaments.
“I think it’s good memories for us forever.”