Campbell to take on all but three Ryder Cup contestants

Date September 26, 2006

LONDON – New Zealander Michael Campbell will take on all but three of the 24 golfers who contested the Ryder Cup at the US$7.5 million ($11.3 million) WGC-American Express Championship, starting in England on Thursday.
Phil Mickelson, Vaughn Taylor and Paul McGinley are the absentees but with holder Tiger Woods also joined by South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, Fiji’s Vijay Singh, Campbell and Australian Adam Scott, it is a stellar field for the lucrative event.
For Woods, the trip to the Grove course on the northern outskirts of London represents the final leg of his three-week spell in Britain and Ireland.
The World Golf Championship (WGC) event will have particular significance for Sergio Garcia, Colin Montgomerie and Henrik Stenson – the Swede whose putt clinched Europe’s success at the K Club.
The trio finished two shots behind Woods in San Francisco last year, their best performance in a WGC tournament.
Joining them from the European team which beat the US 18-1/2 – 9-1/2 in Ireland on Sunday are Paul Casey, Darren Clarke, Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, David Howell, Robert Karlsson, Jose Maria Olazabal and Lee Westwood.
McGinley missed out because he is outside the top 50 in the world rankings and outside the leading 20 players on the European order of merit.
World No 2 Mickelson, who had a miserable week at the K Club, picking up only half a point from five matches, has decided to skip this week’s tournament and may not play again this season. Taylor is 59th in the world.
All eyes will be on Woods as the world No 1 attempts to bounce back following two disappointing weeks.
The 12-times major champion crashed out in the first round of the World Match Play at Wentworth before suffering in Ireland at the hands of Europe’s inspired golfers.
He was way off beam in the early contests in Ireland but picked up form from Saturday afternoon to finish as his team’s top scorer with three points. He has also performed outstandingly well in WGC events.
The 30-year-old American has amassed 12 WGC titles since the series was created in 1999 and won the American Express Championship in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005.
Clarke is the most accomplished WGC player other than Woods, having won the 2000 WGC-Accenture Match Play and the 2003 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
Source: nzherald.co.nz

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