WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
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The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is one of the annual World Golf Championships for male professional golfers. It is a knockout event and is staged in January or February each year. As of 2006 it has been hosted by La Costa Resort and Spa in California in the United States every year since its inauguration in 1999 except for 2001, when it was hosted by the Metropolitan Golf Club in Victoria, Australia. In 2007 it will move to The Gallery Golf Club in Marana, Arizona for at least four years. All three of the individual World Golf Championships events will be played in the United States from 2007, which has attracted criticism from some golfers, including Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, and in the media outside the United States. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has responded by insisting that playing in the U.S is best for golf as more money can be made there than elsewhere. [1]
The Championship is a straight knock-out match play event. The field consists of the top 64 players available from the Official World Golf Rankings, seeded according to the rankings. The prize money in February 2006 was $7.5 million, with the winner taking $1.3 million and the Walter Hagen Cup, and is official money on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. All matches leading up to the final match are 18 holes, while the final match is 36 holes. In addition, the losers of the semifinal matches play an 18-hole match for third place.
[edit] Champions
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
- 2006 Geoff Ogilvy -
Australia - 2005 David Toms -
United States - 2004 Tiger Woods - United States
- 2003 Tiger Woods - United States
- 2002 Kevin Sutherland - United States
- 2001 Steve Stricker - United States
WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship
- 2000 Darren Clarke -
Northern Ireland - 1999 Jeff Maggert - United States
