Match Play will include special ingredient
Can Woods' Streak Continue in Tucson?
Fasten your seats belts and grab hold of the handrail, this is going to be an Accenture Match Play for the ages. There will be surprises along the way, but by the time we get to the weekend, tournament organizers and fans alike will be thrilled to see that most of the big names will still be playing. With all due respect, this is not going to be a Jeff Maggert-Andrew Magee final.
For the first time in a long time we are out of the box in the new season with most of the big names playing big-time golf. Tiger Woods has won -- in fact he is going for his eighth PGA Tour win in a row -- Phil Mickelson has won (and should have won twice) and guys like Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Jim Furyk have all shown significant flashes of form. The way I see it, the semifinals will include two No. 1 seeds, a No. 2 and a No. 4.
All the top seeds will make it through the first round, with Woods defeating J.J. Henry, Mickelson taking out Richard Green, Furyk eliminating Brett Quigley and Adam Scott besting Shaun Micheel. The biggest first-round upset will be. No. 3 Geoff Ogilvy losing to No. 14 Steve Stricker.
The upsets will start in the second round when No. 1 Scott will goes down to No. 9 Rod Pampling and No. 10 Aaron Baddeley beats No. 2 Luke Donald.
In the third round, Woods, Henrik Stenson, Garcia and Els will all advance on one side of the bracket while Furyk, Padraig Harrington, Paul Casey and Jose Maria Olazabal will advance to the quarterfinals. That means that No. 1 Mickelson will lose to No. 4 Garcia.
Now we get to the really good part. In the quarterfinals, Woods will take out Stenson and, in a classic match, Els will say adios to Garcia. Meanwhile, Furyk will outlast Harrington and Casey sends Olazabal packing, setting up a semifinal Saturday afternoon of No. 1 Woods versus No. 2 Els and No. 1 Furyk taking on No. 4 Casey.
In Woods and Els you have two of the best match-play players of their generation. Els has won the European Tour World Match Play Championship a remarkable five times. He is a great driver of the ball and has a remarkable short game, and the key to match play is being in every hole (keeping it in play off the tee), and being able to make those saving up-and-downs around the green. Ernie is a master at both.
In Woods, Els is facing a guy who has won the Accenture twice and was a runner-up on another occasion. And then there is that matter of the three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles Woods won in the three years after winning three consecutive U.S. Junior Championships. That's 36 consecutive match-play victories in six years. Why will Woods win this match? He owns Els. Of all the big-name players, the one within whose head Tiger has a permanent room is Els.
On the other side of the bracket, Furyk fits the Els description to a tee -- he drives the ball extremely well and has an exemplary short game. In Casey, Furyk is facing a guy who won earlier this year at Abu Dhabi on the European Tour and grabbed three of his four possible points in the Ryder Cup last year, winning two matches and halving two others. One of the two matches Casey won in the Ryder Cup was a 2-and-1 victory over Furyk in singles play.
That sets up a Woods-Casey final. The motivation will be strong on both sides. Tiger is going for his eighth consecutive PGA Tour win, and Casey is trying to eliminate the bad taste in his mouth from the poor treatment he received from U.S. galleries after he said that when it comes to the Ryder Cup the Americans are not his friends and he enjoys nothing more than beating them.
This should be a great match. No one gives his all more than Woods. But the fact is winning six consecutive match-play matches is a hard way to try to win your eighth consecutive PGA Tour event. The combination of Woods running on empty and Casey wanting to make a point will carry the Englishman to victory. In the third-place match, Furyk, who has emerged as the solid No. 2 player in the world, will defeat Els.
Match play, quite simply, is the purest form of golf -- one player going head-to-head against another player -- and it always produces unmatched moments of greatness. We see it time after time in the Ryder Cup, and we'll see it again this week in the Accenture World Match Play. Even when the golf is not the best and the best players don't advance, match play is totally entertaining. This time the third ingredient will be there -- the best will be playing at the end. This should be fun. Enjoy.
Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine.
