Clarke to play McDowell in World Match Play

As things stand in the world rankings, Darren Clarke will play his compatriot Graeme McDowell in the opening round of the Accenture World Match Play Championship at La Costa near San Diego next Wednesday.

They finished sixth and eighth respectively at Pebble Beach.

Clarke beat Woods in the 2000 final. Woods has won the Match Play for the last two years.

Participation in the Match Play is restricted to the top 64 in the world rankings, but world number three Ernie Els is skipping the tournament for the second season running and so 65th-placed Shingo Katayama comes in as a replacement.

At 69th in the standings, Colin Montgomerie needs four more pull-outs to be part of the action.

The only other all-European clash is shaping up to be Sergio Garcia against Alex Cejka.

Els’ no-show sets up the possibility of a semi-final between Woods and Phil Mickelson, who won at Pebble Beach by four shots a week after capturing the FBR Open in Arizona by five.

Woods skipped those two events after winning the Buick Invitational. He returns at this week’s Nissan Open in Los Angeles and it is Mickelson’s turn to rest.

The draw will not be made until next Monday and will change if there are any more withdrawals, but on the assumption that Els is the only absentee this is how they will line up (seedings in brackets):

(1) Vijay Singh v (64) Shingo Katayama;

(32) Jonathan Kaye v (33) Jay Haas;

(16) Chris DiMarco v (49) Tim Herron;

(17) Justin Leonard v (48) John Daly;

(8) Stewart Cink v (57) Fred Funk;

(25) KJ Choi v (40) Tom Lehman;

(9) Davis Love v (56) Chris Riley;

(24) Lee Westwood v (41) Steve Flesch

(4) Retief Goosen v (61) Stephen Leaney;

(29) Peter Lonard v (36) Fred Couples;

(13) Miguel Angel Jimenez v (52) Rod Pampling;

(20) Chad Campbell v (45) Fredrik Jacobson;

(5) Mike Weir v (60) Kirk Triplett;

(28) Tim Clark v (37) Craig Parry;

(12) Darren Clarke v (53) Graeme McDowell;

(21) Todd Hamilton v (44) Robert Allenby

(2) Tiger Woods v (63) Nick Price;

(31) Nick O’Hern v (34) Charles Howell;

(15) Kenny Perry v (50) Thomas Levet;

(18) Luke Donald v (47) Zach Johnson;

(7) Padraig Harrington v (58) Jeff Maggert;

(26) Thomas Bjorn v (39) Rory Sabbatini;

(10) Stuart Appleby v (55) Joakim Haeggman;

(23) Jim Furyk v (42) Ian Poulter

(3) Phil Mickelson v (62) Loren Roberts;

(30) Angel Cabrera v (35) Paul Casey;

(14) David Toms v (51) Richard Green;

(19) Stephen Ames v (46) Mark Hensby;

(6) Sergio Garcia v (59) Alex Cejka;

(27) Scott Verplank v (38) Jerry Kelly;

(11) Adam Scott v (54) Trevor Immelman;

(22) Shigeki Maruyama v (43) David Howell