Woods confirms Wentworth return
Tiger Woods has confirmed he is to return to the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth this September for the first time since 1998.
The event, now under the sponsorship of HSBC and with golf’s biggest first prize of £1m (€1.4m), takes place on September 14 to 17, the week before the Ryder Cup in Ireland.
It will be the first leg of a three-way trip across the Atlantic for Woods as the Ryder Cup is followed by his defence of the American Express world championship at The Grove near Watford.
Woods, competing this week at the £5m (€7.2m) Players Championship in Florida, reached the final in his one and only appearance at Wentworth before losing on the last green to close friend, and then Open and Masters champion, Mark O’Meara.
Now it is Woods who holds those two major titles and with three wins already this season he has opened up a huge gap again at the top of the world rankings. He qualifies for the Match Play as world number one.
What will be different from his previous appearance is that now the field is 16 rather than 12 and everybody has to play four 36-hole matches to take the title.
“The HSBC World Match Play Championship is in its 43rd year and has a great history with some awesome winners,” he said today in confirming his place.
“I would love to win it and hope that this year will be my year. With the 2006 Ryder Cup matches set for the following week, the 36-hole matchplay format will be good preparation and we will all be looking for some confidence-boosting wins.”
Peter Stringham, HSBC’s group general manager of marketing, commented: “We are thrilled to have Tiger in the field.
“He finished second at our inaugural HSBC Champions tournament in China and I’m sure his fans will be looking for him to go one better at Wentworth.”
The only other certain starter at Wentworth at the moment is defending champion Michael Campbell.
Ten more will come from performances in the four majors, two more from five designated European Tour events and the final two from the European Order of Merit as of August 28.
David Howell, the man who beat Woods in Shanghai last November, is currently in pole position on the tournament ranking table.
Australians Nick O’Hern and Richard Green lie second and third, with six-time Wentworth winner Ernie Els in fourth followed by English pair Nick Dougherty and Paul Casey.
The two remaining designated events are the BMW Championship, also at Wentworth, in May and the Smurfit European Open at the K Club in July.
