Woods and Others Withdraw from Rich World Match Play

It has been confirmed on the HSBC World Match Play Championship web site that the top three ranked players in the world – Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Phil Mickelson – will not be in the field. The tournament, which boasts a $1.78 million purse to the winner, will be played on September 15-18 at the West Course at Wentworth in England. The highest prize in golf was not even enough for Ernie Els to jump out of bed and forget about recovering from a recent knee surgery.

One would think that the tournament could not get any worse without Woods, Singh, Mickelson, and Els absent, but it does. With the exception of Chris DiMarco and Fred Couples, Sergio Garcia and Davis Love III have decided to stay home and watch Geraldo Rivera wade around New Orleans on FOX News. Vijay Singh will be defending his title against Mickelson, Couples and DiMarco at the 84 Lumber Classic in western Pennsylvania. There is not one American player in the field.

Retief Goosen is the only player ranked within the top ten (#5) who is still committed to playing at Wentworth. Players qualified based on their finishes in the majors, four designated European Tour events and the European Order of Merit ranking. The tournament now counts as a European Tour event, meaning the seven former European Ryder Cup players have an early start at collecting qualifying points for the 2006 European Ryder Cup team. The tournament also affects the world rankings.

The 16 players fighting for the $1.78 million check, well the £1 million in their case, at the World Match Play Championship are:

Thomas Bjorn
Angel Cabrera
Michael Campbell
Tim Clark
Luke Donald
Steve Elkington
Kenneth Ferrie
Retief Goosen
Mark Hensby
David Howell
Trevor Immelman
Bernhard Langer
Paul McGinley
Colin Montgomerie
Geoff Ogilvy
José Maria Olazabal

The only players to watch will probably be U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell or Mark Hensby. Other than those two, the tournament will be a waste of space on your TiVo unless you like listening to British announcers that are impossible to understand ramble on and on about bobbies and pot bunkers. José Maria’s slow play could put Joan Rivers to sleep and I swear that woman never sleeps. Retief may make it to the last match, but when was the last time he showed any outward emotion?

Goosen, Immelman, Hensby, Clark, Campbell and Cabrera are on the International Presidents Cup team, which will be much more enjoyable than this tournament, that will be played the following week in Virginia.

Photo Credit: © ESPN.