HSBC lacks superstars but not fascination
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2005 HSBC World Match Play Championship | Preview | 14 Sep 2005
The HSBC World Match Play has a new date in 2005, the traditional October date now a thing of the past, at least in the immediate future.
The tournament has once again struggled to attract the absolute elite of world golf with Retief Goosen being the only player from the top ten. With the Presidents Cup the following week, it has attracted six of the twenty four who will play there but Thomas Bjorn has already suggested this week that if the event stays with the same date in 2006 and falls the week before the Ryder Cup then things will not improve next year.
It is a shame that such a time honoured event with such great history and with a huge injection of cash has failed to attract the leading players but to a large extent the timing was always going to be a problem. So too is the dislike by Americans for the Match Play format. Not one American will play in the event this season which reflects the problem the World Match Play Championship has had for many recent years, namely the absence of the best of the Americans.
Reflecting the weakened nature of the field is the fact that the 109th ranked player in the world will take on Retief Goosen in round one. Kenneth Ferrie gets a great opportunity here courtesy of his European Open victory, one of the events that allowed access to this event.
This does not of course suggest the event will be anything other than a significant attraction for the regular fans many of whom have made the event an annual pilgrimage as they get to watch head to head clashes in the most intimate of environments. Wentworth’s West course is the perfect setting for such battles, the linear nature of the layout geographically isolating each and every match.
The event gets underway on Thursday with the first of four days of thirty six hole matches for those lucky enough to go that far.
A resurgent Colin Montgomerie takes on the find of major golf in 2005, Mark Hensby. Hensby played reasonably well last week in Germany and was a winner in Sweden a month ago but it was his fifth placing at Augusta, his 3rd at the US Open and his 15th place at St Andrews that got him a place in this field. Hensby has shown in 2005 that debuts are no problem to him but he is up against an experienced and successful Wentworth campaigner in Montgomerie.
Tim Clark, who has also played well in majors in 2005, especially at Pinehurst when 3rd, is up against Steve Elkington who went so close at Baltusrol to winning his second PGA Championship.
US Open Champion Michael Campbell will play the World Match Play for the first time but he loves Wentworth and has often played well there in the Volvo PGA and BMW Championship. On that basis he should be more than a match in his first round clash with Geoff Ogilvy although the Australian has shown in 2005 that he is a much improved and smarter golfer. Ogilvy was 5th at St Andrews hence the start this week.
Luke Donald, perhaps the bright new star of European golf, will take on one of the veterans in Bernhard Langer who has had many a great match at this event being beaten twice in the final by Seve Ballesteros in the 1980’s.
Thomas Bjorn, who made the final against Els here in 2003, only to be beaten by the six time champion, will face Paul McGinley who is somewhat of a match play specialist. McGinley is in very good form at present having finished 3rd and 6th in his last two events. This should be a close match.
The David Howell and Jose Maria Olazabal match is a hard one to pick. Both are in fine form right now. Although Olazabal has not played well at Wentworth in recent years, he did win the Volvo PGA there in 1994 and is a gutsy competitor. Howell’s form of late is nothing short of sensational.
Angel Cabrera and Trevor Immelman have both played well at Wentworth in recent years. Cabrera won here earlier this year and Immelman finished second to Ignacio Garrido in 2003.
Immelman along with Goosen, Clark, Hensby, Campbell and Cabrera will have mixed emotions about the length of their time at Wentworth this week. Four demanding 36 hole matches will drain the energy levels for next week at Lake Manassas but the opportunity to earn the huge cash available at the business end of this event will make up for any concerns they have for next week.
Even those who don’t make it to round two will be well rewarded with Ł60,000 to the first round losers.
Photo – Anthony Powter
