Carl Pettersson of Sweden will face the daunting task of tackling World Number One Tiger Woods in the first round of the World Golf Championships – Accenture Match Play Championship at La Costa Resort & Spa, Carlsbad, California.
The 25 year old, winner of the Algarve Open de Portugal last April, was the last entrant into the elite 64 man field after Vijay Singh withdrew due to a rib injury. A total of 24 European Tour Members are in the field.
Due to Singh’’s withdrawal, all the matches changed from the original line-up, leaving only two all European Tour Member ties, namely Colin Montgomerie versus Alex Cejka and Bernhard Langer versus Adam Scott.
Elsewhere, there are many other intriguing match-ups involving European Tour players, none more so than for Jose Maria Olazábal who will face Justin Leonard, rekindling memories of their dramatic singles encounter on the final day of The 1999 Ryder Cup Matches at Brookline.
Further down the draw, the 1999 Open Golf Champion Paul Lawrie will meet the 1994 Open Golf Champion Nick Price, while Sergio Garcia will play defending champion Kevin Sutherland.
Two of the young English challengers, Paul Casey and Justin Rose have demanding first round assignments, facing respectively American Ryder Cup players Davis Love III and David Duval, while Robert Karlsson faces Number Three seed Phil Mickelson.
Matches involving European Tour Members
Justin Leonard v José Maria Olazábal
Bob Estes v Stephen Leaney
Padraig Harrington v John Cook
Eduardo Romero v John Huston
Retief Goosen v Jay Haas
Nick Price v Paul Lawrie
Charles Howell III v Niclas Fasth
Sergio Garcia v Kevin Sutherland
David Duval v Justin Rose
Bernhard Langer v Adam Scott
Ernie Els v Phil Tataurangi
Peter Lonard v Kenny Perry
Robert Allenby v Trevor Immelman
Michael Campbell v Jeff Sluman
Davis Love III v Paul Casey
Darren Clarke v Tim Clark
Phil Mickelson v Robert Karlsson
Jerry Kelly v Thomas Björn
David Toms v Anders Hansen
Colin Montgomerie v Alex Cejka
Angel Cabrera v Scott Verplank
