The World Match Play Championship has not even started yet, but already Cisco Systems have a winner on their hands. Senior Cisco executive Rob Lloyd and three fellow team-members drew the trump card from their sleeves when they were put alongside Ernie Els in the pro-am on Wednesday and emerged victorious.
Lloyd, the group vice-president, Enterprise Small/Medium Lines of Business and Channel Operations, Europe Middle East and Africa, joined Pekka Ala-Pietila, Peter Bertrum and Joe Bova and, of course, the mighty Els, to win the curtain-raising event to the 37th World Match Play.
Furthermore, Keith Fox, vice-president of corporate marketing, was in the team led by Bob May that finished third. It looks like being a good week for Cisco.
The World Match Play Championship, the autumn matchplay showpiece on the West Course, has produced some memorable matches in its distinguished
history, and there is no reason to suspect that this year will be any different.
This year's event has something of everything -- youth in the persons of Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott, both 20, experience in the form of the defending champion, Colin Montgomerie - who today played with Bill Nuti, Cisco's Senior Vice President of EMEA - Nick Faldo and Vijay Singh and a healthy sprinkling of players who fall neatly in age and achievement between the two.
The match that is most eagerly awaited is the first-round encounter on Thursday morning between Darren Clarke and Faldo. Clarke, whose fifth seeding is a reflection of his world ranking of eleventh, has a match play victory over Tiger Woods under his belt this year and goes into the match as a warm favourite against the two-times winner of the Championship.
However, Faldo has been showing greatly improved form in the last few months following a barren spell and will be powerfully supported by the gallery. There is nothing a golfer likes more than a champion, and Faldo, six times a major championship winner, is that beyond a doubt. The winner will go on to meet Singh in the second round on Friday.
Garcia and Scott, meanwhile, will provide spectators with the chance to see two of the finest young players in the world slug it out head-to-head. Although Garcia is the same age as Scott, he has achieved more then the
willowy Australian, but Scott will not be frightened by the Spaniard's reputation. Lee Westwood awaits the winner of their match.
Padraig Harrington, who plays Bob May, the only American in this year's field, will have revenge on his mind, no matter how much he protests to the contrary. The jovial Dubliner was beaten 7 and 6 by Montgomerie in the semi-final last year, and he will be keen to grab the chance to redress the balance this time round.
The fourth match in the first round is really too close to call. Thomas Bjorn, with top-three finishes in the Open Championship and US PGA Championship this season, is in a rich vein of form and Goosen is finding his own best game again after losing his way a little at the start of the year.
Whoever prevails in this one will have the dubious privilege of taking on the power of Els. The big South African, known as The Big Easy, is the second seed and, furthermore, won this Championship three years running from 1994.
His deceptively laid-back demeanour conceals a competitive spirit that is made of case-hardened steel -- he and Montgomerie are the players to beat in
this, the latest in a long line of classic World Match Play Championships.
