McDowell gets Tiger draw

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell faces a match against Tiger Woods after squeezing into the 64-man field for next week’s Accenture world match play championship at La Costa near San Diego.

McDowell stayed 65th in the rankings after missing the cut in the Pebble Beach Pro-am but top European Sergio Garcia has already told organisers he does not intend to play next week in an event where he has never progressed beyond the third round.

With the draw fixed in order of seeding it means McDowell will have to take on the world number one if there are no more withdrawals before next Monday evening.

It may seem a tall order, but the Ryder Cup hopeful, who edged Craig Parry out of 65th spot by 0.02 ranking points, should remember that while Woods has taken the title two of the last three years he has also been beaten by Nick O’Hern, Peter O’Malley and Jeff Maggert and, of course, by Darren Clarke in the 2000 final.

Paul Broadhurst can prepare himself for a tough assignment too on his debut in the event. At 64th in the world he should have to take on world number two Vijay Singh.

Ian Poulter, who reached the semi-finals last year before being beaten by eventual winner David Toms, climbed from 67th to 59th in the rankings by finishing joint sixth at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth this weekend.

But, again providing there are no more scratchings, that means a first round duel with American Chris DiMarco, the man beaten by Toms in the final 12 months ago and winner of the Abu Dhabi Championship last month.

Colin Montgomerie, who did not qualify last year, is set to play Steve Elkington, the Australian who beat him in a play-off for the US PGA championship 11 years ago.

The winner could take on Paul McGinley, who is lined up for an opening match against Mark Hensby, while the provisional draw also sees Clarke against last year’s Players Championship winner Fred Funk.

If he comes out on top there it could be Luke Donald next, the Englishman having to beat Australian Peter Lonard first.

Provisional draw (seeded positions in brackets):

(1) Tiger Woods v (64) Graeme McDowell, (32) Rory Sabbatini v (33) Robert Allenby, (16) Henrik Stenson v (49) Tim Herron, (17) Chad Campbell v (48) Rod Pampling, (8) David Toms v (57) Lucas Glover, (25) Jose Maria Olazabal v (40) Arron Oberholser, (9) Adam Scott v (56) Carl Pettersson, (24) Stuart Appleby v (41) Brandt Jobe

(4) Ernie Els v (61) Charles Howell, (29) Bart Bryant v (36) Ben Crane, (13) Michael Campbell v (52) Richard Green, (20) Nick O’Hern v (45) Lee Westwood, (5) Phil Mickelson v (60) Zach Johnson, (28) Fred Couples v (37) Mike Weir, (12) David Howell v (53) Geoff Ogilvy, (21) Scott Verplank v (44) Shingo Katayama

(2) Vijay Singh v (63) Paul Broadhurst, (31) Justin Leonard v (34) KJ Choi, (15) Angel Cabrera v (50) Paul Casey, (18) Padraig Harrington v (47) Shigeki Maruyama, (7) Chris DiMarco v (58) Ian Poulter, (26) Tim Clark v (39) Sean O’Hair, (10) Kenny Perry v (55) Niclas Fasth, (23) Davis Love v (42) Tom Lehman

(3) Retief Goosen v (62) Bernhard Langer, (30) Stewart Cink v (35) Miguel Angel Jimenez, (14) Luke Donald v (51) Peter Lonard, (19) Darren Clarke v (46) Fred Funk, (6) Jim Furyk v (59) Mark Calcavecchia, (27) Thomas Bjorn v (38) John Daly, (11) Colin Montgomerie v (54) Steve Elkington, (22) Paul McGinley v (43) Mark Hensby