Form is not a worry for Woosnam

Ian Woosnam has only to think back 12 months not to worry too much about his form going into the Cisco World Match Play Championship at Wentworth this week.

The man who is now the front-runner to be Europe’s next Ryder Cup captain not just won the title last year, but won it in a way that could not be forgotten in a hurry.

"I was playing pretty steady, but just kept having a couple of bad holes every week," recalls the Welshman.

"In match play that does not matter so much. It’s a different ball game and everybody has a chance."

Not given the luxury of a first-round bye like this time, Woosnam took the scalp of US Open champion Retief Goosen, then reached the final by knocking out the last two winners of the event - Colin Montgomerie by the same 4 and 3 margin and holder Lee Westwood by a massive 10 and 9 scoreline.

At 43 he was trying to become not only the oldest-ever player to lift the trophy, but the first to do so in three different decades.

And despite everything that Padraig Harrington threw at him, he achieved his goal.

Woosnam played the first nine holes in a seven-under-par 28. That set a new record for the tournament, while his seven-successive birdies from the second equalled the record he set himself against Jose Maria Olazabal in 1992.

Harrington, though, came home in a record-equalling 30, seven under as well, for a record-equalling 61 and a two-hole lead. Their better-ball of 56, 16 under, beat by one the 15-year-old record of Sandy Lyle and Tommy Nakajima.

When the Dubliner went three-up after lunch he was odds-on to triumph, but Woosnam fought back to win 2 and 1.

"I feel like I have to pick my game up, but I have nothing to lose," said Woosnam, looking ahead to a week that for him will begin on Friday against either Nick Faldo or New Zealander Michael Campbell.

"It’s the same situation as last year and whoever is playing me is going to be thinking about that."

The other three top seeds with Thursday off are Open champion Ernie Els, Goosen and Sergio Garcia.

Els waits for the winner of the match between Montgomerie and 46-year-old American Fred Funk, Garcia plays either Harrington or Canadian left-hander Mike Weir and Goosen’s first opponent will be either 22-year-old Justin Rose or Fijian Vijay Singh.

Meanwhile, championship chairman Mark McCormack has defended the decision not to pay appearance money to improve the quality of the field.

"Once we start offering inducements the event loses more than it gains. We have never done it and I am very proud of that.

"We’ve had a lot of players - and I am not going to name them - ask for appearance money and we’ve told them we don’t pay it.

"I’d love to have Tiger Woods playing in this every year and I’d like to have Mickelson and David Duval here too. But the fact that even with five million dollars of prize money in the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland two weeks ago they still could not attract any of the top Americans shows you where the sport has gone.

"Having said that, the prestige of this event is very attractive. I think this is a title when your career is over that you would like to have on your list.

"That’s way I’m pretty sure that one day Tiger will come back."

Woods’ one and only appearance was in 1998. He beat Woosnam in the quarter-final and Westwood in the semis, but lost on the last green of the final to close friend Mark O’Meara.

Mickelson competed in 1996 and 1997, but made a first-round exit both times - first to Singh, then to New Zealander Frank Nobilo.

McCormack is head of the giant International Management Group whose clients include Woods.

But he said: “We don’t control Tiger. Tiger controls Tiger and the demands on his schedule meant it was not possible for him to participate this year.

"We talk to him all the time, though, and he knows his invitation is there."

Woods was paid a reported two million dollars to take part in the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Germany in May and is thought to have been guaranteed roughly the same to play in Dubai next season.

"The money is so big it’s hard to contemplate," stated McCormack.

"Except for the Majors and the regular US Tour events most players only go to places now where they receive guarantees."

Not that anyone agreeing to play at Wentworth is in danger of leaving penniless. The first-round losers walk away with £50,000 (€78,800).

The winner’s share of the total purse is £250,000 (€393,900).