Darren Clarke, winner of the 2000 World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play, and South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen are among the international players who have committed to compete in the 2002 event, to be played at La Costa Resort and Spa, Carlsbad, California, from February 20-24.
Among the other international players set to play are Ireland's Padraig Harrington, second to Goosen in the 2001 Volvo Order of Merit, double Masters Champion Bernhard Langer of Germany, seven-time Volvo Order of Merit winner Colin Montgomerie of Scotland and 2000 Masters Champion Vijay Singh of Fiji.
"We are very excited that these world class players have committed to compete in the World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play," said Executive Director Michael Garten. "It will be an opportunity for golf fans in Southern California to see some of these players as they make their first US appearances of the year.”
Els and Goosen teamed up to win the last WGC event, the EMC² World Cup in Japan last November. The victory capped an outstanding season for Goosen in which he won the US Open Championship, The Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and the Telefonica Open de Madrid on his way to winning the Volvo Order of Merit for the first time.
Els followed the WGC - EMC² World Cup victory with a win in the Vodacom Players Championship in South Africa three weeks later.
Clarke became the first European to win a WGC event when he defeated World Number One Tiger Woods in the 36 hole final of the WGC - Accenture Match Play the last time it was hosted by La Costa Resort and Spa in 2000.
