The 2006 Accenture Match Play Championship will be held from February 22 to 26 at the La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California. This major golf tournament, first in the calendar year, kicks off another golf season. Now in its eighth year, the tournament follows a single-elimination, match-play format which leaves only one undeniable winner.
As in typical golf tournaments, golfers don't win based on the total number of strokes over multiple rounds of play, instead the winner here is decided by the total number of holes won by each player in a head-to-head match.
64 of the top ranked players in the world qualify for the tournament. This includes champions from the four major championships in 2005 and from The Players Championship. Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson and many more are expected to compete.
However, Sergio Garcia who would have placed as sixth seed, has recently served notice to the organizers that he will not compete this year. In his five previous appearances the Spaniard has never progressed beyond the third round. With Garcia out of the running, the final spot will go to the player ranked number 65 in the world. Graeme McDowell, is currently 65th in the Official World Ranking so has a shot at this slot.
Last year's champion, David Toms put on one of the most stunning displays of high-performance golf in the seven-year history of the Championship, overplaying Chris DiMarco in 31 holes to earn the $1.3 million first-place prize and the Walter Hagen Cup. DiMarco won $750,000 as the runner-up.
Accenture has a lot riding on Tiger Woods. Its far-reaching advertisement campaign focuses on the tagline, "Be a Tiger". Tiger won two major championships in 2005 with a playoff-victory at the Masters Tournament and following it up with the British Open, bringing his career total to 10 major championship wins.
Woods is on a tear this year as well. He won the Buick Invitational and recently the European Tour's Dubai Desert Classic in a playoff. Tiger Woods is the only golfer to have won all four World Golf Championships events. He consecutively won both the 2003 and 2004 Accenture Championship.
There's no telling how the match play format will treat the top players, but by the time we go to press next month, we will have the new Accenture champion.
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