Mickelson set to miss Match Play at Wentworth

Phil Mickelson looks certain to join Tiger Woods and Ernie Els in being an absentee when the HSBC World Match Play Championship takes place at Wentworth next month.

The event offers the biggest first prize in golf – £1m (€1.46m) – but once again is heading for a list of withdrawals.

Mickelson qualified with his victory yesterday in the US PGA Championship and finished third behind Woods and US Open champion Michael Campbell in the qualifying table based on performances in the four majors this season.

But Woods has already indicated he will not be playing again – his only appearance was in 1998, when he lost in the final to Mark O’Meara – defending champion Els is injured and Mickelson is now expected to turn down his invitation.

That would mean three of the world’s top four are not there.

The President’s Cup match, America against a rest of the world side minus Europe, takes place a week later in Virginia and could seriously dent the Wentworth field. Playing 36 holes a day for four days will not be seen by many as the ideal preparation.

Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington also qualified by finishing joint runners-up to Mickelson and the fact Elkington has been overlooked for a President’s Cup wild card could mean he does play the Match Play.

Bjorn, who lives at Wentworth and lost in the 2003 final to fellow resident Els, confirmed immediately he would be accepting his invitation to play and said: “I hope to be able to go one better.”

With Vijay Singh earning a place as world number one on March 31 the 10 qualifiers off the points table are Woods, Campbell, Mickelson, Goosen, Colin Montgomerie, Chris DiMarco, Mark Hensby, Bjorn, Sergio Garcia, Elkington and Fred Couples.

But officials are now bracing themselves for having to go further down the list. South African Tim Clark, Davis Love and Luke Donald are next and Donald can certainly get ready for a call-up.

England’s Kenneth Ferrie and Argentina’s Angel Cabrera qualified off a separate table of designated European Tour events and the final two qualifying places will go to the leading two European Tour players not already qualified on the Order of Merit on August 29.