Euro trio in Match Play line-up

Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald and Colin Montgomerie have all qualified for the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth in three weeks’ time.

Ten players qualified from their performances in the four majors this season. Garcia, third in the US PGA championship yesterday and fifth in the Open at Hoylake, finished in 10th spot in major championship qualifying.

Donald was 12th and Montgomerie 13th, but three players – Phil Mickelson, Geoff Ogilvy and Chris DiMarco – have already pulled out. Mickelson is attending his sister’s wedding before flying to the Ryder Cup, and that brings in 11th-placed Mike Weir.

David Howell and Simon Khan qualified via a separate table of designated European Tour events and at the end of this week the top two on the European Order of Merit complete the line-up. Robert Karlsson and Paul Casey are in position to take those.

Tiger Woods is playing for the first time since he lost the 1998 final to Mark O’Meara, while Michael Campbell is there as defending champion. Others have yet to confirm.

Major championship qualifying, based on the world ranking points earned, ended as follows:

1 Tiger Woods (US) 226.40

2 *Phil Mickelson (US) 157.28

3 *Geoff Ogilvy (AUS) 130.25

4 Jim Furyk (US) 83.33

5 *Chris DiMarco (US) 71.50

6 Tim Clark (SA) 66.90

7 Shaun Micheel (US) 60.00

8 Ernie Els (SA) 57.66

9 Adam Scott (AUS) 56.85

10 Sergio Garcia (SPN) 56.23

11 Mike Weir (CAN) 49.70

12 Luke Donald (ENG) 49.28

13 Colin Montgomerie (SCO) 43.33

14 Retief Goosen (SA) 40.15

15 Angel Cabrera (ARG) 38.25

16 Jose Maria Olazabal (SPN) 35.76

17 Chad Campbell (US) 33.10

18 Steve Stricker (US) 33.00

19 Vijay Singh (FIJ) 31.50

20 Fred Couples (US) 28.75

*unavailable