Els facing Monty match-up

Colin Montgomerie has to take on record six-time winner Ernie Els in the opening round of the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth on Thursday.

Montgomerie, champion himself in 1999 and twice a runner-up, has fallen to 48th in the new world rankings and as such will be seeded 15th of the 16 players chasing the £1m (€1.4m) first prize.

Els is the highest-ranked player on show – he is currently fifth – but because defending champion Paul Casey is automatically the top seed the South African finds himself at the other end of the draw and therefore up against the man he twice pushed into second place at the US Open.

One of Montgomerie’s two final defeats, in 1994, was to Els, who has also beaten Steve Elkington, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Thomas Bjorn and Lee Westwood to lift the trophy.

Casey starts against American Jerry Kelly, the only player in the field not in the world’s top 50, while Open champion Padraig Harrington, seeded third, takes on Anders Hansen, the Dane who won the BMW PGA Championship over the same West Course in May.

Justin Rose, runner-up to Nick Dougherty in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews at the weekend and also to Hansen after a play-off five months ago, faces up-and-coming American Hunter Mahan.

All but one of the eight first-round clashes features at least one European. Swedes Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth goes head to head with American Woody Austin – the one who fell into the lake during the recent Presidents Cup – and Argentina’s Andres Romero respectively, while Hansen’s fellow Dane Soren Hansen tackles South African Rory Sabbatini, eighth in the world and seeded fourth.

The other match is between two US Open champions, Argentina’s current holder Angel Cabrera and South Africa’s Retief Goosen, twice a winner of that title.

Whoever comes out on top there will meet either Casey or Kelly, while if Harrington makes the quarter-finals his opponent would be either Stenson or Austin.

Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, David Toms and Scott Verplank all turned down chances to play the event.

Woods appeared for the second time last year, but suffered an opening-day defeat to compatriot Shaun Micheel, who went all the way to the final before being crushed 10 and eight by Casey.

Els has not won a tournament all year, but returns now to the scene of two hat-tricks – from 1994 to 1996 on his first three attempts and then from 2002 to 2004.

Draw (seeded position in brackets):

(1) Paul Casey v (16) Jerry Kelly

(8) Retief Goosen v (9) Angel Cabrera

(5) Justin Rose v (12) Hunter Mahan

(4) Rory Sabbatini v (13) Soren Hansen

(3) Padraig Harrington v (14) Anders Hansen

(6) Henrik Stenson v (11) Woody Austin

(7) Niclas Fasth v (10) Andres Romero

(2) Ernie Els v (15) Colin Montgomerie