Accenture will be interesting -- with or without Tiger
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
We have no clue. No inside knowledge.
Not expecting a heads up from his pilot or a text on the cell.
We're hearing the same things you are. He's watching cartoons with Sam and pounding drivers. His game is back. The knee is better than good, nearly bionic.
And the focus? C'mon. You have to ask?
All that said, we're thinking Tiger Woods might wait a couple of weeks. Instead of debuting as the top seed at next week's World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, he could be thinking Blue Monster. World Golf Championships-CA Championship.
Still a WGC event -- and he owns them -- but he'd be holding his 2009 coming out party on a course where he's won three of the last four times the PGA TOUR has stopped by. And the event? Try six wins in nine tries.
But, what if Tiger does make Tucson his first start since last June? Well, he'll be the top seed and defending champion -- and, yes, he's won it two other times, too -- at The Gallery at Dove Mountain.
It is a long time indeed between now and then. Even between now and Friday when the field is finalized. So you want to know who'll make it to the finals? Please. The only thing certain in match play is the uncertainty.
The top 64 right now includes Dustin Johnson and Anders Hansen, whose wins last weekend shot them up the rankings and into the field. It doesn't include teen sensation Ryo Ishikawa who sits at 67th or D.J. Trahan, who is 66th with a bullet. Australian Richard Green is the bubble boy at 65. Darren Clarke, the 2000 champ, needs an 11-player miracle to go from 75th to a spot in the bracket.
But it's the top seed that has our attention. And we got to wondering what interesting matchups or simply funky facts could await us should the tentative-and-certain-to-change-before-Friday-afternoon bracket surprise us and stay the way it is.
So, here goes:
• If Tiger is in and no one drops out, he faces a potential upset at the hands of Australian Brendan Jones, ranked 64th, in the first-round. Oh really? Yep. Tiger's record against Aussies in this event is, well, suspect. You recall the infamous first-round upset in 2002 at the hands of Peter O'Malley? Or the second round loss to Nick O'Hern in 2005 or the third-round outtahere at O'Hern's hands in 2007? Well, consider this. If one player drops out, Tiger still has to face an Aussie in Green. Better hope for two, which would put Trahan in the hot seat.
• The top seeds in the brackets? Tiger tops the Bobby Jones Bracket, Sergio Garcia (No. 2 in the world) has the pole position in the Gary Player bracket, 2009 double-major winner Padraig Harrington (No. 3) leads the Sam Snead bracket and Vijay Singh (No. 4) is atop the Ben Hogan bracket. As it plays out, the winners of the Jones and Hogan brackets play in one semifinal; the Player and Snead winners in the other. Anyone else thinking a Tiger-Paddy final? Like we said, a long way to go.
• Garcia will make his U.S. debut here, facing Charl Schwartzel in the first round. But if he wins that one, he meets the winner of an interesting match between Ryder Cup teammate Ian Poulter and India's Jeev Milkha Singh.
• Sticking with the Player bracket, there's an all-Swede opener between 2008 Order of Merit winner Robert Karlsson and Peter Hanson and a contrast of personalities in the first round with England's Justin Rose meeting Boo Weekley. At the other end of that bracket, England's Paul Casey meets Aussie Aaron Baddeley .
• Harrington, who's playing his way to Augusta and the media storm of a potential third consecutive major, has Bob Hope Classic champ Pat Perez, currently ranked 62nd, in the opener. Next up? The winner of Robert Allenby-Ross Fisher.
• Henrik Stenson, who won the 2007 Accenture Match Play Championship and beat Justin Leonard to finish third last year, makes the Snead bracket one to watch. Stenson finished third at the 2008 U.S. Open, fourth at the 2008 PGA and teamed with Karlsson to win the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup. He faces 2006 Accenture Match Play runner-up Davis Love III in the opener, while Jim Furyk has Hansen, European rookie for the year Martin Kaymer meets Stuart Appleby and Leonard faces Andres Romero. Anthony Kim meets Taiwan's Lin Wen-tang.
• Heading back over to the Tiger, er, Jones bracket, keep an eye on the first-rounder between former champs Geoff Ogilvy (2006) and Kevin Sutherland (2002) and the Tim Clark-Retief Goosen, all-South African opener. The Clark-Goosen winner takes on the Tiger-Jones winner.
• Rory McIlroy, whose win at the Dubai Desert Classic has moved to 16th in the world, opens against 49th ranked South African Louis Oosthuizen. If he wins that and survives the winner of Mike Weir-Hunter Mahan, he could face Tiger in the third round.
• The Hogan bracket could have some interesting twists and turns. Singh would draw Soren Kjeldsen in the opener, while Phil Mickelson, who's struggling with his game, faces 2007 U.S. Open champ Angel Cabrera and Ernie Els faces Soren Hansen. Johnson's soggy win at Pebble Beach jumped him 74 spots to 45th in the rankings and into his first WGC event, where faces a potential first-round match against 2001 Match Play champ Steve Stricker.
• If Tiger doesn't play? The brackets shift. Garcia moves to the top seed and takes on first-alternate Green and Harrington goes to the second seed and top seed in the Player bracket and faces Jones. Singh moves to third seed, the top of the Snead bracket, and faces Schwarztel, while Mickelson slides into the top spot in the Hogan bracket and meets Perez in round one.
• Other interesting matchups in a Tiger-less scenario where there are no other changes? McIlroy would face Weekley in the opening round, Poulter would face Luke Donald, Johnson would draw K.J. Choi and Karlsson takes on Cabrera.
• If three players withdraw, 17-year-old Ishikawa steps in and . . .well, he might just steal the show. The high school senior has a Tiger-like following in Japan and he's in the spotlight this week at the Northern Trust Open.
• And if...well, we've given you enough to think about between now and Friday when the bracket will actually be finalized and bracket madness can begin.
• But we will leave you with one interesting fact. The field, once criticized as being too heavily American, is now truly international. Right now, only 17 of the world's top 64 players are American. There are also eight Australians, eight South Africans, seven players from England, three players each from Denmark and Sweden, two each from Spain, Argentina, Canada and Northern Ireland and one each from Ireland, Fiji, Columbia, Germany, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and India.
Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.
Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM
FAN ZONE
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network