ESPN's Jason Sobel argues that the nature of golf doesn't lend itself to rivalries.

... golf includes so many elite pros at the highest level that it's difficult to find any sort of continuity in conflicts at the top of the leaderboard.

Chalk this up to three reasons: Deeper fields, in which seemingly every player has a chance to contend on any given week; very few match play tournaments on the annual schedule, relegating the number of head-to-head instances; and gentlemanly players, many of whom would rather call a penalty against themselves than cause a mini-firestorm by pointing out the faux pas of a playing partner.

I get his point, but I'm not buying it. If there was another player even as close to Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour, there would be a legit rivalry. Eh- Phil closed the year strong, maybe he'll finally put a year or two together to battle Tiger head to head. I will give Sobel this- it is hard to have a rivalry when what you really need is the best players playing their best ON THE SAME WEEK, which is hard to get sometimes.

Fortunately- I DO have a solution. More Match Play.

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