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Faldo
faces Campbell in Matchplay Nick Faldo faces New Zealander Michael
Campbell for the right to take on top seed and defending champion Ian Woosnam
at the World Matchplay Championship, which starts on Thursday.
The 45-year-old,
who has won the tournament twice on Wentworth's West Course, has had a return
to form this year after several seasons struggling to recapture the play which
helped him claim six majors at the height of his career. The top four seeds
in the 12-man field receive byes into the second stage of the tournament, with
the other eight pairing off to compete over two rounds of the course on Thursday
for the chance to join them. Faldo will be the underdog against Kiwi Campbell
who is seeded eighth and ranked 19th in the world. Either man would have
their work cut out against Woosnam, who entered last year's event as a wildcard
and upset a string of leading players before beating Ireland's Ryder Cup player
Padraig Harrington in the low-scoring final. The Welshman, 44, is still
a regular threat on the European Tour and was in the final round shake-up in last
weekend's Lancome Trophy in Versaille before a couple of late bogeys scuppered
his chances. British Open champion Ernie Els, a three-times former winner,
could face Europe's Ryder Cup top-scorer in their win over the United States last
month, Colin Montgomerie, in the second round. First, 1999 winner Montgomerie
must beat the only American in the field, Fred Funk, who set the pace at this
year's USPGA Championship before losing out to Rich Beem at Hazeltine. Harrington
takes on the highly respected Canadian Mike Weir in the first round for the right
to play his European Ryder Cup team mate Sergio Garcia, while event debutant Justin
Rose plays twice-major winner Vijay Singh.
Following is the draw for Thursday's
first round of the World Matchplay Championship (prefix number denotes seeding,
tee times GMT): 0900/1315 - 8-Michael Campbell (New Zealand) v Nick Faldo
(Britain) Winner to play 1-Ian Woosnam (Britain) 0915/1330
- 5-Padraig Harrington (Ireland) v Mike Weir (Canada)
Winner to play 4-Sergio Garcia (Spain)
0930/1345 - 6-Vijay Singh (Fiji) v Justin Rose (Britain)
Winner to play 3-Retief Goosen (South Africa) 0945/1400 7-Colin
Montgomerie (Britain) v Fred Funk (U.S.) Winner to play 2-Ernie Els
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