Rules change would stir the pot of uncertainty

round-robin system, somewhat complicated and frequently baffling, which

last week replaced the direct elimination method employed to decide the

tournament in the first seven years of its life. But simple solutions to

complex problems will be easily made.

Giving all the countries, particularly those far-travelled, at least

three matches and retaining the medal match-play games over 18 holes

will, it seems, continue. Spectators are served by having more golf to

watch and television will escape the trauma of the risk of matches being

as good as over before they reach the cameras.

The problem that accompanied the changes were that, as events turned

out, there was too much meaningless golf on the third day. Only in Group

2 were two teams locked in serious combat for a semi-final place and

England qualified at the expense of Japan, eliminated when an Italian

obliged the ultimate winners with an extra-hole victory.

That the identity of all but one of the semi-finalists was virtually

confirmed after only two days' play was partly the consquence of the

four sides seeded second in each group having been defeated on the

second day. Scotland, Australia, and the United States simply had to be

sure their scores were not damagingly high; their match results hardly

mattered.

With that pre-occupation uppermost in their minds, Scotland and the

United States could afford to lose their matches, against Sweden and

Ireland, as also did England before they were able to count their

blessings and, eventually, the #100,000 they each won for beating

Scotland in the final.

Perhaps if only one seed instead of two were allocated to each group,

so that more countries could be drawn at random to join them, and if

pure-bred match-play replaced the mongrel medal match-play kind the pot

of uncertainty would be more vigorously stirred. Points for games would

be be awarded and a count-back on games won used to resolve ties.

Otherwise breaking ties on a team's stroke aggregate, the present

system, seems the fairest. On the other hand, Korea's unfortunate

experience against Ireland, when one of their players was disqualified

for rules infractions, meant that they were effectively eliminated from

the tournament as the team could not then produce an aggregate.

Tom Kite, the US Open champion, and Greg Norman were last week

inclined to favour the original format. Kite commented: ''If you lost

early, you went home early, but the old way meant you played under more

pressure.'' Bernhard Langer thought the revised method better, but

preferred a game points system to replace the stroke aggregate method

for tie-breaking.

The ''holes up'' after 18 holes system, which once applied to amateur

international matches decades ago, is another possibility. However, it

runs the risk of distortion, since two players on a side could win by

two up and three up, only to lose the match overall because the third

member lost by six down.

Whatever the sponsors decide over the winter the tournament, for which

Dunhill's own contract expires after the next one, will return to the

Old course until 1995 at least. And whatever decision they reach the new

method did produce British finalists who could all be concerned in the

1993 Ryder Cup match, an encouraging outcome indeed.

Meanwhile, Norman, who plans to miss the Australian Open to spend

Thanksgiving in the USA, made some amends yesterday by saying he would

compete in the Australian Masters in February.

* OLYMPIC organisers want to add golf to the 1996 summer Games, with

Augusta National as the site of competition. The Atlanta committee for

the Olympic Games has scheduled an announcement tomorrow to propose

men's and women's golf be added to the Games. If the plan goes ahead

around 20 nations would be expected to compete in medal play.