Columnist Peter Benton: World Golf event has stellar field

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002 | 10:41 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, along with the 2000 champion, Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, are among the international players who have committed to the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play Championships.

The 2002 event will be played Feb. 20-24 at the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., with the field consisting of the top 64 players from the Official World Golf Ranking.

Among other international players committed are Scotland's Colin Montgomery, Fiji's Vijay Singh, Ireland's Padraig Harrington, Germany's Berhard Langer, New Zealand's Michael Campbell and last week's winner, Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal.

Tiger Woods will be the No. 1 seed, followed by Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia (Spain), Els, David Toms, Singh, Goosen and Canadian Mike Weir.

The first two editions of the Accenture Match Play Championship were played at La Costa. Jeff Maggert won the inaugural tournament in 1999, defeating Andrew Magee. Clarke's 2000 victory was over Tiger Woods. Last year, Steve Stricker won the third Accenture Championship.

The 2002 Accenture will be the first of four World Golf Championships contested this year. The NEC Invitational will be played Aug. 20-25 at Sahalee Country Club in Sammanish, Wash.; the American Express Championship will be held Sept. 17-22 at Mt. Juliet Estate in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland; and the EMC World Cup will be played Dec. 10-15 at Vista Vallarta in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Second at 211 was Mike Singer's team of Ken Land, Mary Weidman and Irv Bronstein, with third place at 212 going to Tammy Gephardt, Peter Fischer, D'Anne Daniels and Tom O'Rourke.