Format tweak won't affect HSBC World Match Play
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2004 HSBC World Match Play Championship | Preview | 13 Oct 2004
The HSBC World Match Play Championship or by whatever naming rights sponsorship it has been known over the long period since it’s inception back in 1964, is one of the great events in world golf. As someone who caddied in the tournament on three occasions back in the mid 1970’s, it is an event that is close to my heart and played on a golf course that lends itself perfectly to the format.
There is an intimacy about Wentworth’s West course, or Burma Road as it is often and affectionately called, which creates an atmosphere that in turn draws spectators into a match perhaps more than anywhere else.
Although the event has at times struggled to get the field it deserves, some of the game’s greatest players have their name of the trophy. Tiger Woods does not, although he was runner up to his friend Mark O’Meara in 1998. Woods has been noticeably absent from the event since.
This year, rightly or wrongly, the tournament has money list status on the European Tour. Perhaps it is not such a bad thing. After all, the event now has qualifying criteria whereas in the past it was more of an invitational event. Players know exactly what they have to have achieved in order to make the field. There were several who declined invitations but they were given the option. The downside is that there is an automatic £60,000 towards the money list just for being there.
The tournament has also now changed the format to include all sixteen players in round one of the event whereas in the past, at least recently, the leading four seeds would sit out day one and await the winner of first round matches in round two. This again makes for a much fairer means of establishing the best player of the week.
Of course the £1 million first prize is a more than reasonable incentive to be in Surrey this week also. Thirty years ago when Hale Irwin won the first of his two consecutive Piccadilly World Match Play Championships, as it was then known, he won £10,000 which, on a percentage increase basis by my calculation, well suffice to say it is a huge increase.
The tournament starts on Thursday with Ernie Els to face the Volvo PGA Champion, Scott Drummond. If Els is to go on and surpass the great deeds of Gary Player who made this event his own through the late 1960’s and early 1970’s when winning the event five times, then he obviously must win round one. Drummond’s PGA win here on this course in May suggests he has a great love of Wentworth but with 43rd his best in thirteen starts since that win, then this is shaping as a David and Goliath battle.
Vijay Singh will play two time finalist Bernhard Langer, Retief Goosen takes on Jeff Maggert, Mike Weir meets Thomas Levet, Padraig Harrington meets Chris Riley, Todd Hamilton plays Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel Jimenez plays Steve Flesch and K.J. Choi meets Angel Cabrera.
Els and Singh are scheduled to meet in the final should they both get that far and there is every reason to suggest they will. Both are in good form and both have good form at Wentworth. Singh won in 1997 and was runner up in 1996 while Els has five titles and a runner up placing to his name.
If you are concerned about someone being beaten in round one then don’t feel too sorry for them. The first round losers walk away with £60,000 (A$150,000) just for teeing it up. Not to mention the luxury hey are surrounded by throughout the course of tournament week at Wentworth with many players being housed in some of the grand homes around the estate. The difference for Ernie Els is that it is a case of him being at home this week as he owns a house on the Wentworth Estate.
