New look for Volvo World Match Play
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2009 Volvo World Match Play Championship | Preview | 28 Oct 2009
For the first time in its long and impressive history, the World Match Play Championship moves from the home (Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey) it has enjoyed from its inaugural staging in 1964 until it was last played in 2007.
In 2009 the event has a new venue and a new sponsor as Volvo comes on board to replace HSBC who were involved as a naming rights sponsor for five years. In the earlier years the event came under numerous sponsorship arrangements with tobacco, alcohol, cosmetic, banking and vehicle companies supporting an event which had become synonomous with late season golf in Britain.
The Cabell Robinson designed Finca Cortesin GC in Casares, near Marbella in Spain, plays host to the new look event which includes 16 players from eleven different countries. Five players from England, Lee Westwood, Oliver Wilson, Paul Casey, Ross Fisher and Simon Dyson, are in the field while the only other country with more than one competitor is Australia, represented by Robert Allenby and Scott Strange.
The qualifying criteria have been altered this year to provide a greater international spread of world class players and whether that has been achieved while still maintaining the integrity of the event is arguable. The make-up of the field includes four of the current top ten in the world, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia. Only one of the four major champions, Angel Cabrera, is playing the event.
Anthony Kim represents the powerhouse of world golf, the US, and the possibility of a match-up between him and Robert Allenby in the latter stages of the tournament will have golf fans licking their lips. Allenby was soundly beaten by Kim at the Presidents Cup before sounding off about his opponent’s nocturnal habits. That match-up, if it does eventuate, will not come until the semi finals.
The event is played in four groups of four players with the each player in that group playing each of the other three in 18 hole matches before the winner of each pool will advance to the semi final matches played over 36 holes on Saturday.
The final will be played on Sunday also over 36 holes.
Only two previous winners are in the field. Paul Casey won in 2006 and he is back after injury to play his first event in more than two months and the in-form Lee Westwood, who is in the middle of an unbelievable run currently, will have their followers but Westwood appears the man most likely even allowing for the volatile nature of the format.
Robert Allenby will face Martin Kaymer in round one while Scott Strange will play Paul Casey.
