Players from 19 countries are currently in position to qualify for the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship at The Ritz Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain, in Marana, Arizona from February 23-March 1.
With the top 64 players in the Official World Golf Ranking qualifying as of Monday, February 16, the Accenture Match Play Championship will once again bring the world’s leading players together in head-to-head competition with 47 of the this week's top 64 now in European Tour Membership.
The United States has 17 players currently qualified, including last weekend's FBR Open champion Kenny Perry, Anthony Kim, who will be playing in his first-ever Accenture Match Play Championship, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Boo Weekley. It remains to be seen if World Number One Tiger Woods will return from injury to defend his 2008 Accenture Match Play Championship title.
Australia is next with nine players currently within the top 64 in the world. Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy enters as one of the most successful players in tournament history and has begun the 2009 season by winning the Mercedes-Benz Championship. Ogilvy, the champion in 2006, has compiled a won 11-lost two record in three starts and ranks third in all-time earnings in Accenture Match Play Championship history with more than $2.1 million. Other notables from Down Under include Adam Scott, Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby and Aaron Baddeley.
England, with seven players currently qualified, brings the likes of Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and Luke Donald to Arizona at the end of the month.
Ernie Els, Trevor Immelman, Retief Goosen and former University of Arizona graduate Rory Sabbatini lead the group of seven players from South Africa who are currently qualified.
Three players from Sweden are within the top 64, including 2007 Accenture Match Play Championship winner Henrik Stenson. Stenson has accumulated a won 12- lost two record in three appearances at the Accenture Match Play Championship, earning more than $2 million in that time.
Padraig Harrington, who has now won three Major Championships in the past two seasons, is certainly the headliner from Ireland, but it is Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, 19, who catches the eye. McIlroy won his first professional title at the Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday, moving him to Number 16 in the World Ranking and will be playing in his first Accenture Match Play Championship.
Other countries currently represented in the standings include Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Fiji, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and Thailand. Lin Wen-Tang, winner of the UBS Hong Kong Open and currently ranked Number 49 in the world, will be the first Chinese Taipei player to qualify for and compete in a World Golf Championships event.
“The World Golf Championships are a summit for golf’s best players from around the world,” said Executive Director Wade Dunagan. “You see countries like Taiwan represented at this event for the first time or the fact that more than 73 percent of the players currently qualified are from countries outside the United States and you understand the stretch the game of golf has globally. The World Golf Championships help bring all of these countries together.”
The top 64 available players from the Official World Golf Ranking released on Monday, February 16, will qualify for this year’s event as the tournament returns to Arizona for the third year, but this time at a new golf course. Tiger Woods won the 2008 World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship for his 15th victory at a World Golf Championships event.
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