Zach Johnson is the defending champ at Colonial. He's joined in the field by, among others, Stewart Cink, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan, Adam Scott and David Toms.
The World Match Play (not to be confused with the Accenture Match Play Championship, the WGC event) has gone through some changes. For one thing, it used to be independent of any tour, now it's an official-money event on the Euro Tour. The field has expended from the original 12 to 24.
The top three in the world rankings and five of the top six are in Spain for the World Match Play: Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy, plus Ian Poulter, Retief Goosen and defending champ Ross Fisher.
The 24 players begin play divided into eight 3-man groups. Those groups have some names that won't surprise you: The Arnold Palmer Group, plus the Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman and Ian Woosnam groups. But there are also the Mark McCormack, Gustaf Larson and Assar Gabrielsson. Who?
McCormack you've probably heard of; he's only one of the most important people in golf history. Founder of IMG, agent to Palmer, Player and Nicklaus (among many others), powerbroker in both golf and tennis, developer of world rankings in both sports. And founder of this tournament: McCormack created the World Match Play in the mid-1960s as a showcase event for his golf clients.
Larson and Gabrielsson? They are the cofounders of tournament sponsor Volvo.
Check our tournament pages for the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and the Volvo World Match Play Championship to see the past champions and more info about each.
The LPGA is in action this week, too, with its own match play tournament. The Sybase Match Play Championship has a field of 64. Sun Young Yoo is the defending champion.
This Week: Colonial and World Match Play originally appeared on About.com Golf on Monday, May 16th, 2011 at 11:52:24.
Comments