With his victory on Sunday at the Northern Trust Open Bill Haas jumped 10 spots in the world golf ranking and into a third-seed and a Day 1 marquee matchup against Ryo Ishikawa at this week’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
The bracket of 64 for the season’s first World Golf Championship was released Sunday based on this week’s world golf ranking and features an opening showdown between top-seeded Luke Donald and Ernie Els, who was 65th in the world last week but dipped to 68th this week.
Although the final Match Play field was set with last week’s ranking, the bracket was delayed until the release of this week’s edition. Phil Mickelson, No. 9 in the world following his runner-up showing in Los Angeles, is skipping the Match Play to participate in a family vacation. Paul Casey (No. 24), who has been sidelined since an early-season snowboarding accident, also will miss the Match Play.
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy will face George Coetzee, No. 3 Lee Westwood will play Nicolas Colsaerts and No. 4 Martin Kaymer will face Australian Greg Chalmers on Wednesday.
The most compelling first-round match, however, will be in the Snead bracket between No. 20Tiger Woods and No. 48 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, who will be making his first Match Play appearance.
Source: golf central
