WGC Accenture World Matchplay

Its that time of the year where the WGC's kick in again properly, we have Englishman Ian Poulter defending his crown in what will be the match up of golfs 2 most popular tweeters, Poulter 1.1million followers v's Cinks 1.2million followers and to great exponents of the art of matchplay. This surely is the pick of the first round ties. Though Poulter has already complained that he an Cink are first out at 725am local time in Tucson.

There are also some serious connotations towards the world rankings, it is possible that Tiger can re
gain world number 1 status, yet at the same time and early bath for Tiger means any of the Worlds top 10 can pass him in the rankings dependant on their own finish in the event.

This rarity of events is a welcome break up to the usual strokeplay we see week in week out on tour so much so we usually get quite a few withdrawals as some guys don't like the format but as we stand on the eve of the event only 1 guys have pulled out this year Tim Clark the most notable of those. Yet into the breach has stepped the next 2 available players from the OGWR Henrik Stenson and JB Holmes. The latter only getting his call up late yesterday meaning a late flight out to Arizona (would've thought he'd have been in the area anyway as chances of late call up at 1st reserve were high but not JB)

Other matches of interest are a plenty, but I'm looking forward Westwood v Noh, Wood's v Bjorn and the one I really like the look of is mr consistent Stricker v young gun Manassero.

Interestingly though this event hasn't gone well in past years for current No1 Westwood failing to make it past the 2nd round in every appearance so far. Can world No2 Kaymer show he has matchplay credentials unlike his fairly average showing in the Ryder Cup ( I maybe being unfair on martin here but I'll let you decide)

There are many good matches on the card but the real interesting stuff will be thursday and fridays matches and can Casey who seems to excel at the art of matchplay make it 3 finals in a row but convert this time? Only time will tell.

All in all it will be a good event I've no doubt about that but who will be in the final duel come sunday and who will be taking the early bath. Let battle commence

(Any chance of a sticky MODS)

I love matchplay and think there should be more on both tours, but something really needs to be done about the ranking points allocated. This is knock-out golf after all, so why so many points available. Woods could go back to the top by getting into the next round, if Westwood fails. It makes no sense because Tiger is nowhere at the moment and deffo' not No1. Yes the winner overall will deserve a good points tally, but scoring so many for getting into the next round seems silly.

Also curious about how the players approach this event. usually they will be booked into digs a couple of days before kick-off to play the course and practice. They would then have another couple of days booked, with another couple of days booked but awaiting confirmation if they make the cut for the weekend. They could be going home after the first day, so what contingency plans would they have. Would they have unconfirmed booking somewhere near their next event, or just shoot off home for a few days? I suppose this type of event brings it's own worries and financial problems especially if it was a matchplay event with plenty of lower ranked tour players.

Doc agreed on all areas there, the weighting of points in this event are skewed, as I said its just as likely Tiger could be No1 at end of the week or even No7-10 due to points on offer dependant on finishes but that said with a matchplay event of this scale it would be hard to do the points any other way.

I love matchplay for me its golf in its purest form 1on1 best guy on the day wins irrespective of ranking and ability No64 is just as likely to win as No1 fantastic. I don't think there are enough matchplay events in a) Pro game B) Top Amateur Game and C) at club level.

I'd love to see a matchplay event say every few months as well as the WGC and ET matchplay why not have a PGA on and asia/japan one then all four winners have an end of year shootout where they all play each other in a mini league format and the guy top at the end wins!

It'd be a bit like the event where the 4 major winners play end of season slightly exhibitionist but great for the fans great for all 4 corners of the globe to have someone to follow and a nice little earner for the pro's

Sponsorship in golf is at an all time low, which is obviously due to the economic climate at the moment. This was very noticeable on the PGA Tour, whereby the events were announced late last year, but many didn't have sponsors or endoresments. Finchem in his usual bluster said no worries etc, but potential sponsors will now wait until the death and offer to do it, but at a greatly reduced fee. Makes sense for the companies involved, but sees Finchems money machine spluttering.

It would make more sense to think about doing something different, and I don't mean FedEx end of season garbage. How about a World Cup matchplay event. The players from all 4-tours are ranked on the money lists, and the top 6 are selected to represent their tour. It could be a mini-league along the lines of the LTA Davies Cup, and could be doubles and singles. It could be put into the diary and spread over the season, or could be one big event near the end of the season. It could be home and away etc. I think it would be a great spectacle and something new that would attract sponsorship and get away from some of the lesser events and probably bring in more audience from a TV viewpoint. Broadcasters cannot carry on relying on Tiger to bring in audiences, especially if he carries on downwards

Really looking forward to this! Only downside is that I like a little flutter on the golf and the matchplay seems such a lottery that it makes bets very difficult to choose.

I'm going for two matchplay experts in Poults and GMac though Poults hasn't impressed me much so far this year and I'd be more confident of GMac if he'd taken on less week off and had played last week rather than coming into such a big event relatively "cold". Poults has a tough 1st round match but if he gets past that I can see him going a long way.

Suprised to see Casey favourite! And Tiger 2rd-favourite with Kaymer 3rd. If I had to pick one of those it would be Kaymer, but not much value in the odds

Sounds like a good idea to me, you could even incorporate the LPGA and LET tours to give a fuller flavour to it and allow for ladies verses men say the top 6 on each money list regardless of nationality and allow for et v pga!

30 minute delay to the start because of frost according to Ian Poulter on Twitter. I bet he wished he'd had an extra half hour in bed!

They should be under way now but no updates yet. www.pgatour.com shows the revised start times but nothing in the way of early scores at the moment. Looks like no shot tracker on the scoreboard this week either

Put a bet on tiger, Kim and mahon to win , just to make the viewing even
more interesting . I think day 1 of the match play is a great start to the event but as the week goes on you get less and less golf but hopefully a better standard of golf.

Anyway here's to a good week of golf.

Just a small update.

Ernie 3 down to Overton after 3. Bad start.

Poulter all square after 4.

You beat me to it Caf - I was just about to post about Els getting a good kicking as one of the early starters!

Luke taken a 1 hole lead early on

Davie wrote:You beat me to it Caf - I was just about to post about Els getting a good kicking as one of the early starters!

Luke taken a 1 hole lead early on

Good thing about that is I have a fiver on overton to make the last four! I thought he'd be a good outside bet after the RC also got some on Stricker, Ogilvy and Casey

Bad loss for Poults - dunno what happened with that little chip in 17 - seemed to really jump at him

BTW I see that the forum chatbox is open on the main page - ostensibly for some wussball game that's going on. I reckon we ought to ambush it one night when the golf is on!

Davie wrote:Bad loss for Poults - dunno what happened with that little chip in 17 - seemed to really jump at him

BTW I see that the forum chatbox is open on the main page - ostensibly for some wussball game that's going on. I reckon we ought to ambush it one night when the golf is on!

It was a very tough draw, but 2 up with 4 to play is a sore one to let go no matter who you are playing.

Some interesting results out on the course in Tucson so far today. World No.10 and playing distinctively out of sort Jim Furyk goes out in first round 2down.

No.8 and former WGC matchplay winner stricker losing out to European wonder kid Manassero. Donald makes light work of Charlie Hoffman. Mark Wilson takes down the big hitting DJ. Likewise YE Yang taking down the world longest tour player Quiros after extra holes.

KJ choi removes Goosen from the event too, the common theme here being all the shorter hitters but the ones that keep the ball on the short grass are showing the bombers how matchplay can and should be played by always being in the hole with a chance.

Else and overton trading blows for 19holes and Kuchar and Hansen going for the marathin match with Kuch finally closing it out after 23holes.

7 matches so far have gone beyond the regulation 18holes,

Woods and Bjorn playing cat and mouse all the way so far with Bjorn 1up through 15 as I write this
Twitter and especially paul azinger going into overload at the lack of golf channel coverage of the Worlds No1 and No2 matches.

Rickie Fowler seems to be showing the grit he had in both Walker and Ryder cups against Peter Hanson. Ed Molinari despatches the Laird (over-rated if you ask me) in convincing fashion.

Mahan winning the all Sean Foley stable match convincingly against O'Hair.
Stenson looking decidely uninterested in even being in the Arizonan desert yet westwood if having problems trying to deal with him convincingly.

Kaymer is just out for the Stroll against Noh who seems to be playing like a rabbit in headlights

Whilst Karlsson gets not coverage in his 5&3 victory.

Then there was the early boys the battle of Twitter Poulter v Cink. Poulter played solidly was 2up with 4 to play and Cink spent the whole day looking like he couldn't hit a barn door tee to green but my god that man knows matchplay is about 1 thing, numbers! And did he hole the putts to make his number count

Then there's Paddy who is doing his best to convince us like he does in every RC that he just isn't a matchplayer as Ogilivy who isn't even playing great is currently 4up.

At least Casey has still got a chance to make it 3rd time lucky and Rory shuts up the golf chaannel by throwing their prediction that Jbyrd would beat him down there necks with a comfortable victory over the american

Wow I felt properly tense watching tiger hole out on 18. You could see tiger loved that.

My final update of the night sees harrington makes the worst attempt at an eagle putt on 15to try and stay in a game where Ogilvy spent more time off the beaten track in the wild than Bear Grylls on a hotel free night!

Kayner shoots and average even par and wins 7&6, does this prove my theory of ranking points to the japan and asian tour players like Noh(yes I know he is now and ET player but most of his OGWR points came from his far east tour last year) get to many ranking points to compete on the big stages

Ishikawa for yet another week gets a cheaper hotel bill as he again fails to make it anywhere near the weekend.

Fowler puts in a solid performance finishing with a magnificent putt on 18. This kid has good matchplay credentials and I would fancy him to beat Mickelson tomorrow who coasted against a poor oppenent in Brendan Jones who is another guy purely earning OGWR points in Japan so adds to my theory to many points going out their to guys not as good as some on the ET or PGA tours that would've put up a better fight.

Justin Rose currently sitting pretty at 4up on Zach Johnson and Late call up JB Holmes is playing with nothing to lose and produced a good victory today.

Anthony kim is getting a pasting in his match too he seems to be struggling still since last years thumb injury did he comeback to quick from surgery and is now suffering the after effects as his year so far has been poor.

And Tiger holes a putt on 18 after a great approach to force Bjorn into as the americans would say Overtime,

The UK players are doing very well so far - except for Poults. He had a chance, but Cink made every putt in the last segment.

Westwood, Casey, Rose, McIlroy, McDowell, and Fisher advance to the second round.

Ahh. Schadenfreude. Love it. Sorry IJP but if you will whinge about your start time...
And no TW in the second round? Gets better and better.

On a positive note, what a win for Manassero.

Manassero is gonna be an absolute beast of a golfer (he's already bloody class).

Multiple majors IMO

Jamson wrote:
Manassero is gonna be an absolute beast of a golfer (he's already bloody class).

Multiple majors IMO

I hope you're right Jamson, but lets give him time before we big him up too much. We're too quick to do this and don't think it helps, as we've seen with players like Rory being the new Tiger, and had the same problems heaped upon the shoulders of Sergio when he came onto the scene. The yanks are as bad with players like Fowler who hasn't done anything except look good for a couple of rounds.

Doc wrote:

Jamson wrote:
Manassero is gonna be an absolute beast of a golfer (he's already bloody class).

Multiple majors IMO

I hope you're right Jamson, but lets give him time before we big him up too much. We're too quick to do this and don't think it helps, as we've seen with players like Rory being the new Tiger, and had the same problems heaped upon the shoulders of Sergio when he came onto the scene. The yanks are as bad with players like Fowler who hasn't done anything except look good for a couple of rounds.

As an englishman i'm just exercising my god given right to go OTT at the fiorst sign of promise

Jamson

are you a sports reporter for the Sun by any chance??

:606laugh:

Maverick wrote: as I write this Twitter and especially paul azinger going into overload at the lack of golf channel coverage of the Worlds No1 and No2 matches.

What dreadful coverage. We hardly saw anything of GMac, Rory and (by the time I retired to bed before I lost the will to live) Kaymer or even Lee. Saw lots of shots of JB Holmes plumb-bobbing his putts, backing off, plumbing again then missing! If only Sky could take their own cameras as well as comentary team for these big events.

Jamson wrote:

Doc wrote:

Jamson wrote:
Manassero is gonna be an absolute beast of a golfer (he's already bloody class).

Multiple majors IMO

I hope you're right Jamson, but lets give him time before we big him up too much. We're too quick to do this and don't think it helps, as we've seen with players like Rory being the new Tiger, and had the same problems heaped upon the shoulders of Sergio when he came onto the scene. The yanks are as bad with players like Fowler who hasn't done anything except look good for a couple of rounds.

As an englishman i'm just exercising my god given right to go OTT at the fiorst sign of promise

I thought my godgiven right as an englishman was to nick everyone elses country and then give it back to them later in a show of munificence.

I agree, the US coverage was dreadful as usual. 19th hole Bjorn-Woods and we didn't even see Bjorns green-side chip.

Great win for Thomas. Tiger didn't play well, but Thomas just seemed cool all along.

Manassero is a talent, but let's allow the lad time to develop his game before we bracket him like garcia when he was young look what happened there! And likewise Rory is getting his knockers for not achieving more at a young age.

Let's take a look at todays matchups. :

McDowell v Fisher
Cink v Yang
Casey v Day
Els v Holmes
Manassero v Schwartzel
Donald v E Molinari
McIlroy v Crane
Palmer v Jimenez
Mickelson v Fowler
Kuchar v Van Pelt
Bjorn v Ogilvy
Wilson v Watson
Westwood v Watney
Choi v Moore
Kaymer v Rose
Karlsson v Mahan

Some very interesting games out there today in tucson, the games to watch are Gmac v Fisher, many will fancy Gmac but don't discount fisher who has good matchplay Pedigree and I'd personally shy towards Englishman fisher edging this match

Donald v Molinari mr steady v eddie - donald took an easy victory against hoffman more due to hoffmans poor play than his own excellence but he is a good matchplayer, then there's eddie he was a bit of a birdie machine mid-round in his defeat of the Laird. I'd go for Eddie just edging this encounter

Mickelson v Fowler - Mickelson coasted to victory much like donald did over an inferior opponent. Whereas Fowler showed his matchplay grit again to come through his match, he has good RC and Walker cup records and Phils match play record is flaky, though Fowler seems unable to close out in strokeplay at the moment I fancy him to take down big phil

Westwood v Watney : maybe westy will get more aitime now tigers departed! Westwood overcome a poor Stenson in a decidedly poor match. Watney pulled AKim to pieces in his 1st round game, Westy has poor form in this event never getting past round 2 since its inception. Based on that and his display yesterday I fancy Watney to take down the world No1 in this game

Woods early departure means others in the top 10 OGwR
Can overtake him in the world rankings with a decent finish we could end the week with the top 5 all being european now that would be nice

Good work Mav - I'm enjoying your summaries. On a par with Kwini IMO!

LadyPutt wrote:Good work Mav - I'm enjoying your summaries. On a par with Kwini IMO!

Thanks LP glad you enjoy reading, I figured if Kwini doesn't wish to come over then someone needed take up the mantle. Hopefully your enjoyment reading this has justified my reasons

Maverick wrote:

LadyPutt wrote:Good work Mav - I'm enjoying your summaries. On a par with Kwini IMO!

Thanks LP glad you enjoy reading, I figured if Kwini doesn't wish to come over then someone needed take up the mantle. Hopefully your enjoyment reading this has justified my reasons

hmmm... Could Mave be Kwini in disguise? Or possibly Iain Carter?

Golf Channel pre-production meeting;

'So, what are we going to show today?'

'Other than Tiger, you mean?'

'Tiger's out, didn't you know?'

'What, he's withdrawn? Why?'

'No, he lost'

'Sure, he's not leading, but just you wait till Saturday, he'll make a move'

'It's a matchplay tournament, mano a mano, loser goes home. Did you not know that?'

'Matchplay? Oh. So we probably should have shown some of Bjorn's shots yesterday then, if only to put Tiger's in context?'

'Duuh!'

'Ok, well is Phil playing today? We can just show his game. And Rickie Fowler, everyone loves Rickie. Those two games should keep us on air all day.'

'Now you're getting it. Plenty of blimp shots, a few cactii and any putts by anyone else of over 50ft and that's the show'

I did think that for a moment but he's certainly far too intelligent and knowledgeable about golf to be Iain Carter

Anyone know what happened to McIlroy? Was he bitten by a snake or something.

Crane said it was the best 9 holes he has played, Fowler now 5 up?

I do wish David Livingstone would stop talking such rudey poo!

Rory blown away by a man on fire and Fowler did the same to Phil. Bubba is awesome for a country boy trailer trash bloke

Why????? Highlights of Tiger's defeat yesterday, ffs!

Its hard to judge who the idiot of the day award should goto on day 2, the candidates s must be the golf channel broadcasters for airing footage of Tiger Woods for no other apparent reason than they are crying into their beer that their love child wasn't good enough to make day 2. Or the 2nd candidate must be the american commentator who cannot get the names of anyone right at all, we hear Moores name being called when in fact its Watney putting, Mahan being drooled over when it was Jimenez teeing off and no they don't apologize for their dumbness!

That brings me to todays matches:
Westwood again under achieves in this event by repeating his usual 2nd round exit strategy, and for a 2nd consecutive year to Nick Watney who was never behind all day.

Ryan Moore convincingly winning through to day 3 against a fairly average opponent on day 2 in KJ Choi

Yang again proves you don't need to be a big hitter to win in matchplay.

Macdowell wins the battle of britain convincingly in a fairly poorly played encounter,

Mannassero again shines on day 2 proving like Yang accuracy and GIR is the winner in matchplay
against the very solid Schwartzel.

Donald likewise just plots his way to victory the admits in an interview due to his lack of length he plays a different course to everyone else, but it is effective

MAJ again shines in his cigar munching ways and the yankee commentator finds it more entertaining calling him the mechanic than actually commentating on his fine play

Ogilvy comes out on top of a fine exchange with Bjorn and is looking to emulate Woods and become a 38 winner of this event

Big boy Bubba blasts his way to a very convincing win over Wilson but as always with bubba its done with a smile, can't help but love the guy he's an emotional wreck!

JB Holmes plays the way a late entrant should just like when Daly won at Crooked Stick, carefree and and using his length to go at everything and takes down the big easy, JB could be the one to watch out here in the desert.

Jason Day shows his class and takes down matchplay specialist Casey in the battle of two guys who have a shout at biggest forearms on tour!

Ben crane puts Rory over his knee and gives him a hell of a spanking, just when rory thinks he has it he gets taught a severe lesson by a very solid but slow! Player. Nice to see british media already attributing this to rorys poor form instead of Cranes fine play and rory proving a point Mac and I both hold, the kid like tiger cannot string good rounds together consistently.

Rickie Fowler however is starting to prove me right this week in that even though he cannot xlose out a strokeplay event, he sure as hell is one fine matchplayer in his destruction of big phil in a near perfect display, I must not complain as had a fiver on the kid at 50-1.

Karlsson has a tidy lead with a couple to play hits a sublime drive at 15 and misses the eagle to go 2up with 3 to play and hands to match over to Mahan on a plate at 17 and closes the match out with a par 4 at the 18th. Oh Well at least Sean Foley still has a reason other than teaching Tiger how to play golf for being there this week with the ever solid Mahan being in the hunt still.

Justin Rose with a sublime back 9 performance whilst supposedly suffering effects of flu! I'm sorry JR even with severe man flu their is no excuse whatsoever for such a bad cardigan, Adidas need some new design guys for coming up with such a shocker! Not a patch on Fowlers pink shoes. So to Kaymer playing un spectacularly solid, yet being drooled over by the commentators, but doing enough to edge out JR on the 20th

Soto tomorrows line up for you to pick from, I'll do my usual picks of the day tomorrow after some sleep as I hear Mrs Mav calling me to turn the golf off after another 5hours straight torture for her!

Watney V Moore
Manassero v Donald
Fowler v Kuchar
McDowell v Yang
Kayner v Mahan
Crane V MAJ
Ogilvy v Bubba
Day v Holmes

Footnote: how nice to have an event without having to hear Fehertys ridiculous attempts at humour or having to see Mark Roe.

Westwood putted like Stevie Wonder.

Mannasero did well again but I fancy Donald to beat him.

The quarterfinals are on. Golf Channel has gone all serious, they're showing every shot of every match, and Tiger is forgotten.

Caught some of the quarters at the golf club after I finished playing today. Luke looked very impressive.

Missed the end when I went to the pub to watch the England rugby game and I'm now home settling in to watch the semis.

I thought when I left the golf club that Bubba was losing (may be mistaken there) but I see he's still playing so it was either a mistake on my part or he must've had a good comeback in the quarters!

I'm sure it will all come clear as I settle down to watch these games over the next few hours

The Holmes/Watson match was complete madness. Watson won on the 19th hole.

Either one of them should be too exhausted mentally to play Kaymer, but you never know.

Can't believe how much Luke has come under the radar. He's had some great games this week but is still not attracting the column inches as much as Herman the German or American with silly names. Kaymer/Donald for the final for me and I don't care which one wins if it works out that way - both worthy winners

Donald vs Kaymer it is then, Luke's been on fantastic form this week so I think come Monday morning the OWGR top 4 will be Kaymer, Westwood, Donald, GMac. Clearly, Westwood will now sink without a trace

The two most consistent players have reached the finals.

I did enjoy watching Bubba Watson play Kaymer, though. He very nearly pulled it off. It was more poor shot selection than anything else.

Kaymer becomes No1 by reaching final but Lukes playing the golf of his life at moment makes for a great final

vinyl1 wrote:The Holmes/Watson match was complete madness. Watson won on the 19th hole.

Either one of them should be too exhausted mentally to play Kaymer, but you never know.

When JB's game fell apart I got the distinct impression that he was not being honest. Big claim I know but did anyone see it.He carved a drive into the desert, and when you think he should declare an unplayable, he manages to get a free drop because of an irrigation head. he dropped the ball in front of another head and claimed it would be in his way, as he wanted to aim that way, when in fact he didn't. So he conned the official and got another drop, which meant he walked off with a par, but Bubba won the hole. If Bubba had not won, maybe the commentary team would have said something, as it was they just said he was lucky. Later he carved another into the desert, and took a drop from another fairway with over 200 yards to carry. Bubba ran over and shouted he was taking it from the wrong place and the official then made him move 50 yards left. I think he was trying for unfair advantage time after time as he was obviously gutted at letting a 5 hole lead vanish

just switched on the golf

luke donald 6 up thro 9 holes .....amazing golf ...just wish he would win more tournements....hopefully starting with this one !

2nd englishman to win a WGC!

Go lukey!

Just not happy about Kaymer taking over Westy at the top. Perhaps if we put them both in a hotel with a can of carling and the dambusters movie that might resolve itself....

fingers crossed for luke tonoght. being honest i think kaymer is deserving of the world no.1 at the moment but i do want westwood to bag the masters and go rightfully to the top with the major in hand.

LJ Luke donald is the reason i put so much importance on the short game. his scrambling and wedge play is sublime......just needs to bag a major 2