This one really isn't about soccer; I’ve yet to watch one of the matches.
It seems to me that they've set up the format to counter some of the frequently aired reasons given why we don't see more Matchplay completions in the pro game. Basically the game is now TV driven and unless they are made more appealing we won’t be seeing more matchplay comps.
If a tournament was run in this way.
It would need to start on Wednesday with 16 players seeded into four groups. Over the first 3 days each player would play the others in their group with 2 points a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. Each day would therefore have 8 games. Tied on points could be decided by rating players by the number of holes they were up in each game.
Saturday you then start two knockout competitions. One for the winners of each group and the other for the runners up. You have 4 games.
Sunday two finals and two semis gives 4 more games. The two finals could be 36 holes with the cameras joining in the afternoon when there are 4 games going on.
The advantages are.
It would be a lot more TV friendly. They could be pretty sure of big names still being on screen on Sunday. Also with more games on at the weekend they could cut back and forth just like they do at the Ryder Cup and every other tournament. I’ve watched the last tow finals from Wentworth and it can be quite slow on the TV.
You would also get more fans attending as they would have more to watch. Like the World Cup they would still feel they had seen the best winner of a knockout competition.