Mike Weir tops the inaugural HSBC Major Championships Ranking following his triumph in the Masters Tournament at Augusta National and has qualified for the 2003 HSBC World Match Play Championship.
With 50 points, Weir accumulates sufficient points to ensure his qualification alongside Ernie Els, who has confirmed he will defend the title, and World Number One Tiger Woods. In a thrilling finish to the week, Len Mattiace’’s final round of 65 was not quite enough to claim the Masters’’ green jacket, but puts him in second place in the HSBC Major Championships Ranking on 30 points, and in a strong position to earn a place in the HSBC World Match Play Championship.
The HSBC Major Championships Ranking has been created to measure and rank player’’s performances in the current year’’s ‘Majors’’, as a basis for constructing the strongest field for the HSBC World Match Play Championship. After the US PGA Championship, the top ten players in the ranking are guaranteed qualification to the 2003 HSBC World Match Play Championship in October.
Mike Weir is the first left-hander to win a Major Championship in 40 years, since Bob Charles won the Open Golf Championship title in 1963, and it is fitting that he tops the HSBC Major Championships Ranking on the 40th anniversary year of the Championship.
The 2003 HSBC World Match Play Championship will be held from October 16-19 over the famous West Course at the Wentworth Club. The 12 man field will compete for the richest first prize in the history of US and European golf - £1 million - and a total purse of £2.3 million.
The HSBC Major Championships Ranking will be updated following the US Open Championship from June 12-15.
