Darren Clarke has been drawn against Justin Rose while Padraig Harrington is up against Alex Cejka in round one of next week’s Accenture World Match Play championship in California. Clarke beat Tiger Woods in the final three years ago to claim the 1million US dollars first prize, but did not defend the title in Australia the following season and last February, back at La Costa, was knocked out in the first round by American Matt Gogel at the second extra hole.
Rose, still only 22, will be making his debut in the championship which brings together the top 64 players in the world.
Elsewhe 65th-ranked Robert Karlsson is up against world number one Tiger Woods, who returned to action in sensational fashion by running away with the Buick Invitational - his first event since knee surgery in December.
The match play draw takes place next Monday, but as things stand, assuming Toru Taniguchi does not play due to medical problems, ninth seed Padraig Harrington would open against German Alex Cejka, Paul Casey would take on fifth seed Retief Goosen and Nick Faldo would meet Jim Furyk in a rerun of his last Ryder Cup match at Valderrama in 1997, which the American won three and two.
Provisional draw (world rankings in brackets):
(1) Tiger Woods v (65) Robert Karlsson; (32) Peter Lonard v (33) KJ Choi; (16) Robert Allenby v (49) Stephen Leaney; (17) Justin Leonard v (48) Jeff Sluman; (8) Davis Love v (58) Len Mattiace; (25) Eduardo Romero v (40) Tim Clark; (9) Padraig Harrington v (57) Alex Cejka; (24) Rich Beem v (41) Tom Lehman (4) Vijay Singh v (62) Anders Hansen; (29) David Duval v (36) Brad Faxon; (13) Rocco Mediate v (52) Loren Roberts; (20) Jerry Kelly v (45) Adam Scott; (5) Retief Goosen v (61) Paul Casey; (28) Stuart Appleby v (37) Scott McCarron; (12) Colin Montgomerie v (53) Paul Lawrie; (21) Charles Howell v (44) Scott Verplank (2) Ernie Els v (64) Jay Haas; (31) Craig Parry v (34) Fred Funk; (15) Mike Weir v (50) Jose Maria Olazabal; (18) Bob Estes v (47) Thomas Bjorn; (7) David Toms v (59) Toshi Izawa; (26) Scott Hoch v (39) Chris Riley; (10) Chris DiMarco v (56) Shingo Katayama; (23) Angel Cabrera v (42) John Huston (3) Phil Mickelson v (63) Kevin Sutherland; (30) Shigeki Maruyama v (35) Kenny Perry; (14) Nick Price v (51) Trevor Immelman; (19) Michael Campbell v (46) Niclas Fasth; (6) Sergio Garcia v (60) John Cook; (27) Darren Clarke v (38) Justin Rose; (11) Jim Furyk v (54) Nick Faldo; (22) Bernhard Langer v (43) Steve Lowery.
Filed by Johnny Proby
