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By John Maginnes
PGATOUR.com Contributor

MARANA, Ariz. -- Through seven holes on Thursday at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, Retief Goosen was 4-under par with four birdies and three pars. Unfortunately for the sweet swinging South African, though, he was 1 down to Niclas Fasth, who had made an eagle and three birdies over the same stretch.

Don't you just love match play?

Fasth would go on to cook the Goose 1 up. By contrast, Luke Donald was 2-under par through the same seven holes yet he was 2 up on Aaron Baddeley. Badds went on to dispatch Donald 1 up.

Ian Poulter made it to the third round. (Condon/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

The merit of having more match play events on the PGA TOUR and other tours is a constant topic for debate among players and fans. There are obvious financial concerns for the networks that cover these events. If the marquee players get ousted early in an event the ratings understandably suffer.

Furthermore, when Tiger Woods contends on Sunday in any event, the interests of the golf world -- and the sporting world at large -- are peaked. By contrast, if there had been a match play final between Mark Carnevale and me a few years ago, they might have cancelled the tournament due to lack of interest and replayed "Walker Texas Ranger" all afternoon. The TV ratings probably would have been better.

Long before ratings were a concern, though, match play was as much the norm as stroke play is now. I imagine the players of that era were upset when tournaments like the Western Open and the PGA Championship changed their formats to 72-hole stroke play. Players like Walter Hagen and Byron Nelson were match play experts whose records are the stuff of legend.

The match play records of modern professionals are almost an afterthought to their records in the majors. It is interesting, however, that the largest tournaments in the amateur game annually are match play events. The U.S. Amateur and British Amateur both narrow their fields to 64 after 36 holes of medal play and then play individual matches. The Western Amateur, possibly the most grueling test in all of golf, plays 54 holes of medal play. Then the low 16 players play 36-hole matches to decide a champion.

You can consider the fact that the amateur game still relies on the match play format to crown national champions and the professional ranks uses medal play a contradiction. Solid arguments can be made either way.

Wherever you stand on the debate, though, you have to love this week's Accenture Match Play Championship. The only other place you will get the excitement of good old-fashioned, man-to-man competition by the game's best players is in the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.

While others may say they prefer the atmosphere and patriotism of the team competitions to this 64-man field, from a pure golf standpoint I will take the Accenture Match Play Championship. With most of the members of all the international teams playing in this tournament, you get match-ups that you can't see anywhere else.

In the "sweet 16" on Friday, for example, the flamboyant Ian Poulter will take on the steely eyed South African, Trevor Immelman. Fasth of Sweden will play the defending champion, Geoff Ogilvy from Australia.

If you are a bandwagon fan of the game then these match-ups probably don't interest you at all. I am not making judgments here; my golf geek status was in question for my entire career. It is firmly in place now, though.

The World Golf Championship's Accenture Match Play Championship is a golf geek's dream. Match play is a golf purist's Garden of Eden. Should two guys with whom you are not familiar end up in the finals this week, give it a watch anyway. How many of you had heard of Geoff Ogilvy a year ago? The U.S. Open champion, if you are keeping score, is 8-0 in Accenture Match Play Championship competition.