Woods out

Tiger Woods has confirmed that, for the second year running, he will not be playing in the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth.

Golf's richest first prize of stg£1million was snapped up by Ernie Els last October after the withdrawal of Woods and fellow Americans Jim Furyk, Kenny Perry, Phil Mickelson, David Toms and Davis Love.

The world number one's unavailability is again caused by a clash of dates with a Tiger Woods Foundation clinic he holds in the United States. His only appearance in the event came in 1998 when he lost in the final to Mark O'Meara.

Under a new format, the world number one, the defending champion and the 10 players who performed best in the four majors were invited last year, but the organisers had to go down to Alex Cejka in 18th place to complete the field.