This Week in Golf - February 21st through February 25th

Golf Betting Lines

02/19/2007 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - WORLD GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS - WGC-ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP, The Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain, Tucson, Arizona - Four months before he escaped the carnage a winner at Winged Foot, Geoff Ogilvy negotiated an altogether different kind of mine field to win last year's Match Play Championship.

Ogilvy's win at the U.S. Open in June might have been the highlight of a career year, but it was his victory over Davis Love III in the 36-hole Match Play final that first heralded the Australian's impending breakthrough.

"It's such a hard tournament to believe you're going to keep going because you can run into someone playing well," Ogilvy said after dispatching Love, 3 & 2. "You have to get a bit lucky. I got lucky the first four days, but in the last two games, I played really well."

The same could be said for his win at the U.S. Open: Negotiating Winged Foot took a little luck, but in the end Ogilvy played well while others (Mickelson, Furyk, Montgomerie) folded to the pressure that is challenging for one of the game's toughest titles.

The Match Play Championship provides different challenges -- the task being less about long par threes and thick rough than it is about going head-to-head against golf's best players day after day.

You have to win four tough matches just to make the final. Then, you hope against hope it's not Tiger Woods waiting for you on Sunday.

Woods heads this year's field as the top-ranked player in the Bobby Jones bracket, with Ryder Cup teammate J.J. Henry pulling sacrificial lamb duty (Henry was a late addition when Charl Schwartzel withdrew).

Not that being the world's No. 1 player guarantees Woods a berth into the final: In his last two match play situations, Woods looked more like the lamb, folding to Shaun Micheel in the first round of the HSBC World Match Play Championship in September, two weeks before he was part of the U.S. Ryder Cup debacle.

The three other No. 1 seeds for this week's Match Play are the players who trail Woods in the world rankings. No. 2 Jim Furyk leads the Gary Player division; No. 4 Adam Scott heads the Sam Snead division; and a rejuvenated Phil Mickelson, up to world No. 3, headlines the Ben Hogan division.

The No. 2 seeds are Luke Donald (Jones), Vijay Singh (Player), Retief Goosen (Snead) and Ernie Els (Hogan).

Woods is the only player with multiple Match Play wins since the tournament began in 1999, claiming the title in 2003 and 2004. Last year, he lost to Chad Campbell in the third round. In the first round, he rolled to a 9 & 8 win over Stephen Ames -- after Ames had been critical of Woods' driving accuracy.

Three other past champions will join Woods and Ogilvy in the field this week: David Toms ('05); Steve Stricker ('01) and Darren Clarke ('00). A first-round meeting in the Snead division will pit No. 3 Ogilvy and No. 14 Stricker against each other.

The Golf Channel will have extensive and exclusive coverage of the first three rounds before sharing duty with NBC on the weekend.

PGA TOUR

MAYAKOBA GOLF CLASSIC AT RIVIERA MAYA, El Camaleon Golf Club, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico - The PGA Tour will make its first-ever trip to Mexico this week.

With the world's best players competing in Arizona at the Accenture Match Play Championship, the Mayakoba Golf Classic field is threadbare. But, fittingly, it boasts strong Latin talent.

Mexico's Esteban Toledo and Paraguay's Carlos Franco headline the 144-player field competing for the $630,000 winner's share of the $3.5 million purse. The Mayakoba Golf Classic will be the eighth event of the new FedExCup schedule.

The Golf Channel will have two hours of coverage for the first three rounds and 2 1/2 hours of coverage during the final round Sunday. Next week is the Honda Classic, which was won by Luke Donald last year.

LPGA TOUR

FIELDS OPEN IN HAWAII, Ko Olina Golf Club, Kapolei, Hawaii - The LPGA Tour remains in Hawaii this week for its second full-field event of the season.

Last year, Meena Lee fired a career-best 65 in the final round to come from seven shots back and force a playoff with Seon-Hwa Lee. Meena Lee won the sudden-death playoff with a birdie on the third extra hole.

It was Lee's second career LPGA Tour title and pushed her over the $1 million plateau in career earnings. Lee, the 33rd-ranked player in the world, will be back to defend her title against a field that contains nine of the top 10 women's players in the world.

Only world No. 1 Annika Sorenstam will be missing. Karrie Webb, the new No. 2, and reigning Player of the Year Lorena Ochoa, whom Webb bumped to No. 3 in this week's rankings, will headline the field.

Paula Creamer, last week's winner at the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, will be looking to build on her first victory in nearly two years. Creamer shot a 70 on Sunday to beat upstart Julieta Granada by one shot.

A busy Golf Channel will broadcast two hours of each round (like last week, the event runs Thursday-Saturday) beginning at 6:30 p.m. each day. The LPGA is off next week, returning on March 9 for the MasterCard Classic. Sorenstam won the MasterCard last year -- an early highlight in an up-and-down year.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

THE ACE GROUP CLASSIC, The Club at TwinEagles, Naples, Florida - Loren Roberts made history with his win at the ACE Group Classic last year, becoming the first Champions Tour player ever to win the first three events of the season.

After winning the MasterCard Championship, Turtle Bay Championship and ACE Group Classic, it's hard to believe Roberts failed to win the yearlong Charles Schwab Cup (he lost out to Jay Haas on the last hole of the season).

It was less difficult to imagine Roberts emerging as one of the best Champions Tour players in his first full season on the senior circuit. We may not have predicted three straight wins to begin the year, but Roberts was a good bet to claim multiple titles last season.

Two of the four players with multiple victories at the ACE Group Classic will be in the field this week: all-time Champions Tour wins leader Hale Irwin and Gil Morgan.

Tom Watson, last week's winner at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in Lutz, Florida, is not in the field this week.

The Golf Channel will have coverage of all three rounds beginning Friday. The Champions Tour is off next week ahead of the Toshiba Classic, where Bart Bryant beat three players by one shot last year.

NATIONWIDE TOUR

HSBC NEW ZEALAND PGA CHAMPIONSHIP, Clearwater Resort, Christchurch, New Zealand - The Nationwide Tour remains overseas this week for the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship -- the third international event to open the 2007 season.

Last year, Jim Rutledge finished eagle-birdie and fired a final-round 64 to beat two players by one shot for his first career win outside the Canadian Tour.

As is normally the case on the Nationwide Tour, Rutledge is not back this season to defend his title (at 47, he is the second-oldest PGA Tour rookie in history).

A busy Golf Channel will have at least two hours of coverage of all four rounds. The Nationwide Tour will then go on a one-month hiatus ahead of the Chitimacha Louisiana Open, which begins on March 22.