Duo's absence boosts European hopes in Match Play

Europe provides seven of the top 10 seeds in this week’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship after Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson both decided not to play.

The draw has now been confirmed with Lee Westwood seeded second, Martin Kaymer fourth, Rory McIlroy fifth, last year’s runner-up Paul Casey sixth, Henrik Stenson seventh, Padraig Harrington eighth and Ian Poulter ninth.

Wednesday’s first round has three all-European clashes – Westwood against Bristol’s Chris Wood, Luke Donald against Graeme McDowell and Oliver Wilson against Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Draw (seeded positions in brackets):

(1) Steve Stricker v (64) Ross McGowan; (32) Ryo Ishikawa v (33) Michael Sim; (16) Robert Karlsson v (49) Rory Sabbatini; (17) Ross Fisher v (48) Thongchai Jaidee; (8) Padraig Harrington v (57) Jeev Milkha Singh; (25) Anthony Kim v (40) Matt Kuchar; (9) Ian Poulter v (56) Justin Leonard; (24) Angel Cabrera v (41) Adam Scott

(4) Martin Kaymer v (61) Chad Campbell; (29) Vijay Singh v (36) Tim Clark; (13) Sergio Garcia v (52) David Toms; (20) Lucas Glover v (45) Anders Hansen; (5) Rory McIlroy v (60) Kevin Na; (28) Miguel Angel Jimenez v (37) Oliver Wilson; (12) Robert Allenby v (53) Peter Hanson; (21) Luke Donald v (44) Graeme McDowell

(2) Lee Westwood v (63) Chris Wood; (31) Nick Watney v (34) Yuta Ikeda; (15) Ernie Els v (50) Ryan Moore; (18) Retief Goosen v (47) Soren Hansen; (7) Henrik Stenson v (58) Ben Crane; (26) YE Yang v (39) Soren Kjeldsen; (10) Geoff Ogilvy v (55) Alex Noren; (23) Camilo Villegas v (42) Dustin Johnson

(3) Jim Furyk v (62) Scott Verplank; (30) Hunter Mahan v (35) Charl Schwartzel; (14) Sean O’Hair v (51) Simon Dyson; (19) Stewart Cink v (46) Edoardo Molinari; (6) Paul Casey v (59) Stephen Ames; (27) Alvaro Quiros v (38) Mike Weir; (11) Kenny Perry v (54) Brian Gay; (22) Zach Johnson v (43) Francesco Molinari