World’s leading players do battle in Spain

BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2011 Volvo World Match Play Championship | Preview | 17 May 2011

The European Tour plays two events this week, one where just 24 players will play for €3.4 million in Andalucia in Spain and the other an event on the Madiera Islands where a full field will tee it up for just €700,000.

The time honoured Volvo World Match Play Championship returns to the European Tour schedule for the first time since 2009 and for just the second occasion is being played away from its long time home of Wentworth in Surrey.

The venue this week is that used for the event two years ago namely Finca Cortesin in Casares in Andalucia, a venue which overlooks the Mediterranean in the south western part of the country.

The event is often confused in name with the Accenture Match Play Championship which has never been the World Match Play Championship but which many like to refer to it as being. The Accenture is a World Golf Championship event but it has never been know in its official naming at least as the World Match Play Championship.

This event was not played in 2008 and was off the schedule last year also but in 2009 it moved from England to Spain where Ross Fisher won the first World Match Play Championship played outside of Britain.

The tournament has a great history dating back to 1964 when Arnold Palmer defeated local Neil Coles and was played for the next 41 years at the Wentworth Golf Club. A look at the winner’s list over that long period highlights so many of the modern day greats as having won the event. Perhaps only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are missing from those players who could be considered the greatest of the modern era.

Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo have all won, several of them on multiple occasions giving the event both credibility and a great history. The player with the most wins in the event is Ernie Els a seven time winner, Gary Player won it on five occasions as did Seve Ballesteros.

In earlier days the field was limited to eight players, then to twelve, then to 16. Things have changed now however and there will be much interest in a format tweaked to accommodate the 24 of the leading and available players in world golf who will tee it up in this week’s event.

Eight groups of three players will play off against each other in a round robin format over the first couple of days before two from each group advance to the round of 16 on Saturday morning, the quarter finals on Saturday afternoon with the semi final and final played on Sunday.

It is perhaps sad to see the tradition of 36 hole matches lost in the pursuit of a bigger field and more quick fire results but I guess something had to give in order to appeal to a wider audience.

As it turns out the tournament organisers, IMG, the founders of and for so long the promoters of the event, will be delighted with the field they have assembled. Certainly the line-up is a little European centric but that is the nature of world golf at present and given that five of the leading six players in the world are in the field and all four current major championship winners then it could be described as the strongest field ever assembled for the event.

Luke Donald has been in contention in nearly everything he has played this year and it is likely to be the same this year. He is the current Accenture Match play Champion so he has mixed his great stroke-play form with success in the one on one format. If he was to win this week then he would grab the number one spot of Lee Westwood but I imagine Westwood might have some say in this.

Westwood has not played since the Ballantines event in Korea three weeks ago but he was in rare form there and the previous week in Indonesia albeit against weaker fields than he will face this week. He is a tough customer is Westwood and as a previous winner and runner-up in this event he clearly enjoys the format.

Martin Kaymer could also return to the top of the pile in the world ranking race if he was to win and of course he did finish runner-up to Luke Donald at this year’s Accenture.

Aaron Baddeley gets the invite for the Australasian region being the leading world ranked and available Australasian following the Masters a few weeks ago. Baddeley’s first match up will be against Andres Hansen on Friday morning. Westwood is the other member of that group and Baddeley will play him on Friday afternoon.

The field line-up is as follows:

Ross Fisher (defending champion) Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlory, Paul Casey, Charl Schwartzel, Ian Poulter, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Alvaro Quiros, Francesco Molinari, Y.E. Yang, Louis Oosthuizen, Ryan Moore, Retief Goosen, Anders Hansen, Nicolas Colsaerts, Jhonattan Vegas, Seung-yul Noh, Aaron Baddeley, Johan Edfors, Soren Kjeldsen and Paul Lawrie.