Match Play: All Number Ones Gone; Goosen Tops Els in 20

A surprising couple of days in the Accenture Match Play Championships:

All four number ones are gone. Of course, that’s a bit misleading, since two who would be number ones, Woody and Mickelson, were missing.

Geoff Ogilvy goes home early. I truly didn’t see that one coming.

The best match of the series thus far: Ernie Els and Retief Goosen take theirs to 20 holes. Quite a duel.

Friday’s match between Sergio Garcia and Tim Clark should be interesting. Sergio has shown at the Ryder Cup that he’s a good match player; this could be the year he wins the Match Play Championship. It fits my theory that experience counts in this tournament.

This is truly an international championship at this point, with the Sweet Sixteen including four Englishmen (Oliver Wilson, Luke Donald, Paul Casey and Ian Poulter), three South Africans (Retief Goosen, Tim Clark and Charl Schwartzel), and players from India (Jeev Milkha Singh), Columbia (Camilo Villegas), Spain (Sergio Garcia), Japan (Ryo Ishikawa) and one Thai (Thongchai Jaidee).

Looking forward to tomorrow’s matches. As I’ve said before, I think match play is the most exciting thing in golf.