HSBC Match Play Chamionship – Top Guns Fall Early
Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, and Retief Goosen. Four of the top golfers in the world. All are going home early after first-round losses at the HSBC Match Play Championship outside of London. Match play is a completely different beast than medal (stroke) play and it’s not completely surprising to see these guys on the outside looking in now.
The up side is that now Woods and Furyk can potentially spend more time together prepping for the Ryder Cup next week since in all likelihood, they’ll be partners for at least a couple of the matches. Also, give credit where credit is due as Shaun Micheel gave Tiger all he could handle and be him fairly easily, 4 and 2. Given that this tournament only starts with 16 players, it really is a shootout and anybody can win if they get hot with the flat stick.
Luke Donald is probably the odds-on favorite at this point, but Colin Montgomerie is a match play master and he could easily win this tournament and use it as a jumping point for the Ryder Cup.