Sunday 23 November 2008 | Personalise | Help  
Free membership & newsletter
Join GOLFmagic now
Join today!
Free weekly newsletter
Free membership
why join?  
Latest Reviews
4386 Total Reviews
 NEWS 20 / 02 / 03
 

Bunch of bananas for Els and Tiger?


Tiger- potential banana skins.

The fascinating Accenture World Matchplay championship, scheduled to start in California next Wednesday, throws up some real banana skins for Tiger Woods and Ernie Els if they are to meet in a much-awaited showdown final on March 2.

The top 64 players from the rankings have been invited to contest a series of 18-hole head-to-head matches and Woods and Els have been seeded at No.1 and No.2 respectively to meet in the 36-hole final.

And the draw has produced some terrific match-ups and potential upsets.

Woods is due to meet World No.65, the Swede Robert Karlsson - he got in when Japanese Tori Taniguchi (55th) withdrew - and should progress before a tough second round against either Peter Lonard the inform Australian or KJ Choi of Korea, twice a winner on the US Tour last year.

For Els it's a tricky opening tussle against 49-year-old Jay Haas, who has shown good early form in California, if he's to face the winner of the battle of the Tour's pint-sized heroes, Craig Parry and Fred Funk.

Other key contests include Darren Clarke against Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie against fellow Scot Paul Lawrie, Padraig Harrington taking on Alex Cejka and Nick Faldo up against ex-Ryder Cup foe Jim Furyk. And Paul Casey will be feeling confident in the run-up to his match against Retief Goosen.

Third seed Phil Mickelson meets the holder, Kevin Sutherland and fourth seed Vijay Singh has to overcome Dane Anders Hansen before a possible clash with David Duval or Brad Faxon.

Full proposed draw: Woods v Karlsson, Lonard v Choi, allenby v Leaney, Leonard v Sluman, Love v Mattiace, Romero v T Clark, Harrington v Cejka, Beem v Lehman.

Singh v A Hansen, Duval v Faxon, Mediate v Roberts, Goosen v Casey, Appleby v McCarron, Montgomerie v Lawrie, Howell III v Verplank.

Els v Haas, Parry v Funk, Weir v Olazabal, Estes v Bjorn, Toms v Izawa, Hoch v Riley, DiMarco v Katayama, Cabrera v Huston.

Mickelson v Sutherland, Maruyama v K Perry, N Price v Immelman, Campbell v Fasth, Garcia v Cook, D Clarke v Rose, Faldo v Furyk, Langer v Lowery.


Bookmark thisPrinter friendly version
Want to send this article to a friend? Please join here
 

Comment on this in our forum:
 You say:
Using this form will also register you with the site.
Message:
Related articles:
Woods faces broomstick test
Petterssen v World No.1 in matchplay
Tiger v Ernie..who'll win?
Matchplay showdown forecast
Clarke's new clubs and ball
Golfmagic talks to Irish ace

Members Logon
Email:
Password:
forgot your
password?
Article search
Click to support GM