European Tour Member Ernie Els, the defending champion, will assume the mantle of Number One seed for this week’s HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth Club, while 2003 Major winners Mike Weir, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel take seedings Two, Three and Four respectively.
The above quartet will not begin their challenge for the title until Friday morning, the remaining eight competitors starting on Thursday, playing for the right to progress to meet one of the top four seeds.
Thursday’s first match sees Australia’s Stephen Leaney, who finished second in the US Open Championship, tackle South Africa’s Tim Clark, third in the US PGA Championship, and who was later named as a wild card pick for the International Team in the upcoming Presidents Cup. The winner of that match will go through to face Els, who is attempting to become only the third player, behind Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros, to win the title on five occasions.
Second seed Weir, the Masters Tournament winner, will face the winner of the tie between Denmark’s Thomas Björn, joint runner up in the 132nd Open Golf Championship, and American Len Mattiace, who lost in a play-off to Weir at Augusta.
Third seed Curtis, winner of the 132nd Open Golf Championship at Royal St George’s in July, will come up against the winner of the match between fellow American Chad Campbell, who finished second in the US PGA Championship and Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson, whose excellent year featured a tie for fifth place in the US Open Championship and a tie for sixth place in the 132nd Open Golf Championship.
Finally, fourth seed and reigning US PGA Champion Micheel, will kick off his campaign against the winner of the tie between Germany’s Alex Cejka, fourth in the US PGA Championship, and the 1997 World Match Play champion Vijay Singh of Fiji, who best Major performance this year came in the 132nd Open Golf Championship where he tied second alongside Björn.
