A Bit of Match Play

If you're a fan of match play you're probably aware that the ET has a new match play event running this week. It's called the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play and it's being hosted by -- you guessed it -- 1999 Open Champion Paul Lawrie.



Unlike some of the other small field match play events that have been held on the ET in the past, the Saltire has a full 64-man field from the Race to Dubai list -- or at least it did when it began on Thursday. It uses a traditional one-and-done format with the Top32 players paired against the lower 32.

Lawrie made it past the first round and will play Chris Doak today. That could be a tough one since Doak came back from 4 down in the first round to win 1 up -- he took 6 of the final 9 holes to do it. But Lawrie won his match against Romain Wattel 5 up, so he's playing well.

There were only 2 Americans in the field -- John Daly lost his match 2 down to Jorge Campillo, but Peter Uihlein beat Oliver Wilson 2 up. Uihlein will face Matthew Fitzpatrick, the 20-year-old 2013 US Amateur champion who turned pro just last year. That should be an interesting match!

GC's coverage begins at 9am ET -- the same time as ESPN2's coverage of the RICOH Women's British Open -- but Uihlein and Fitzpatrick tee off at 7:35am ET (if I've got my time changes correct) so the two should be well underway when the coverage begins. Lawrie tees off 25 minutes after Uihlein.

This is an inaugural event so if you love match play you'll want to check it out.