The Hero Cup (a shameless rip-off of the old Seve Trophy, it has to be pointed out) attracted little in the way of fanfare and not much in the way of crowds but in a strange way that only added to the event.

Designed to ‘blood’ potential European Ryder Cup players, the Hero Cup does for the DP World Tour what the Presidents Cup does for the US team.

And what unfolded over three days at Abu Dhabi Golf Club last week was an entertaining spectacle with a bigger purpose.

There was some spectacular golf played and all the vagaries of match play that make it such a compelling format were on display (see Molinari v Lowry in the Sunday singles for evidence.)

However, one thing the event did highlight (again) is professional golf’s vexed relationship with the head-to-head format.

It is almost universally acknowledged that the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup are golf’s most entertaining spectacles.

Yet almost all other attempts at match play at the elite level seem to fall short.

The annual WGC Match Play has been tweaked and watered down so much over the years that it has lost most of what made it interesting: the chance that big name players would exit early in the week.

Television doesn’t like the notion that Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy might get knocked out of the tournament on day one so a Round Robin system was introduced to try to guard against that.

"What unfolded over three days at Abu Dhabi Golf Club last week was an entertaining spectacle with a bigger purpose." - Rod Morri.

It’s an understandable concern but also takes away a fundamental element of the game: lose and go home.

The players themselves are (understandably) also not great fans of individual matchplay tournaments as the results tend to be flukey.

Give a top notch professional 72 holes and he or she will almost always triumph over a lesser player. But 18 holes of match play? Far less democratic.

Nick O’Hern would readily admit that his two victories over Tiger Woods at this format don’t make him a better golfer than the 15-time major winner. They are, however, testament to the Australian’s extraordinary ability to exploit the strengths of his own game.

(Side note: if you’re interested in improving your golf without buying a new driver or gadget, invest in O’Hern’s book How To Play Your Best Golf. In the unlikely event it doesn’t improve your scores, it will definitely enhance your enjoyment of the game.)

Most golf fans would likely agree they’d like to see more match play, but the reality is it just doesn’t work for the pro game outside team events.

It is perhaps the one thing LIV Golf offers that could genuinely be considered an innovation and seeing how that plays out this year will be interesting.