TOUR Insider: Accenture Match Play/Mayakoba Golf Classic

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Week 8 on the PGA TOUR is a noteworthy one for more than just its departure from the ordinary.

Tiger Woods will try to win the Accenture Match Play Championship for a third time. (WireImage)

Power Rankings: Match Play

Rank Player 1 Phil Mickelson 2 Tiger Woods 3 Ernie Els 4 David Toms 5 Luke Donald

It is noteworthy for its opportunities, with two events in two countries offering a combined 38,750 FedExCup points and $11.5 million

It is also noteworthy for upsets -- depending on how you define an upset.

Is there such a thing as an upset in a match play format contested over 18 holes? Is there such a thing as an upset among the top 64 players in the world playing such an unpredictable brand of golf?

No. And no.

The PGA TOUR's biggest free-for-all known as the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship begins Wednesday at The Gallery at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz. The top 64 players in the Official World Golf Ranking qualify for the only non-stroke play tournament on the FedExCup schedule.

The event, which kicks off the 10th year for the World Golf Championships series, offers 26,250 FedExCup points and an $8 million purse.

It also offers unlimited intrigue.

"I think one of the coolest tournaments we have is taking place [this] week, the Match Play," Phil Mickelson said Sunday after winning the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club. "We only get one day like that really. I think Wednesday, the first day, is the most exciting because so many matches and upsets."

Did he say upset? No, no upsets.

In fact, while surprises abound in match play, you can't really assert that upsets are the norm, if you call them that. Among the top 16 seeds over the years, only one, the No. 5 seed (6-9), has an accumulated losing record. Stretch down to the top 20 and you pick up only one more with a losing record (the No. 20 seed at 4-9).

Meanwhile, no one should get upset going south of the border, where the PGA TOUR once again is staging an official event in Mexico, the $3.5 million Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya.

A field of 144 players is set to gather near sunny Cancun to play for $3.5 million, which is a much better deal than you could find at even the gaudiest all-inclusive resort.

There also will be 12,500 FedExCup points distributed, some of which might be important come late August when they can be redeemed for playoff spots.

FEDEXCUP POINTERS

• Phil Mickelson will try to buck a trend this week by trying to become the first winner of the Northern Trust Open to follow up with a victory in the Accenture Match Play Championship.

• Scott McCarron came the closest by finishing second to Len Mattiace in 2002 at Riviera and then losing in the finals to Kevin Sutherland in the match play final. No winner of the Northern Trust Open has ever reached the Match Play final.

Bubba Watson (T14 at Riviera) is coming off his best finish of the year. (WireImage)

Power Rankings: Cancun

Rank Player 1 Bubba Watson 2 Joe Durant 3 Ken Duke 4 Jose Coceres 5 Olin Browne

• Mickelson is the No. 2 seed, not a good sign, either, considering No. 2s have barely won more than half their matches (11-9).

• Seventeen players are making their debuts in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Included in that group are two members of the U.S. Presidents Cup team: Hunter Mahan and Woody Austin. Both played exceptionally well at Royal Montreal Golf Club in Quebec -- but lost their singles matches.

• Scott Verplank, a former U.S. Amateur champion, has proven to be an accomplished match-play competitor, going 10-3-1 in combined Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup matches, including 3-1 in singles. But you can't blame him for wanting to keep playing stroke-play events.

• Verplank, who tied for fifth at the Northern Trust Open, has a streak of 27 consecutive rounds of par or better dating back to the final round of The Barclays last August.

• Don't count out the defending Accenture Match Play Championship winner Henrik Stenson, who hasn't won a tournament since beating 2006 winner Geoff Ogilvy in the 36-hole final.

• Says Stenson of the match play format: "I wouldn't mind playing one or two more. It becomes very clear to me what I have to do in match play. You have your opponent and you do better or worse. It's do or die; you can never relax. I thrive on it." Stenson, No. 4 seed in the Hogan bracket, opens against Robert Allenby.

• Last year's final was the first that didn't include at least one American. Odds say it could easily happen again. The field of 64 players includes 44 international players. Australia, with 10 men, leads the foreign-born entry list.

• No. 1 seed and No. 1 player in the world Tiger Woods has won 13 individual WGC titles. He has won the match play title twice and is the only player to reach the final three times. Only once, in 2002, did he exit in the first round.

• The South Course at The Gallery at Dove Mountain will feature a slightly different look this year. Warmer desert weather has promoted better growth in the rough; the grass lining the fairways will be thicker and topped at about 3½ inches, putting more of a premium on driving accuracy.

• In case you're interested, Verplank leads the PGA TOUR in hitting fairways while Justin Leonard is third. (Leonard also is fourth in greens in regulation.)

• You also have to like the leader in scrambling, Stephen Ames, who reached the quarterfinals last year after bowing out in the opening round the previous two years.

• Greg Norman, 52, who designed El Camaleon, is entered in his second PGA TOUR event of the year at the Mayakoba Golf Classic following his appearance in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Unusual? Yes. The two-time British Open champ hasn't played in two PGA TOUR events since 2005, and the last time he competed in more than one event before the Florida Swing was1987.

• Fellow Champions Tour players Fred Funk, who won last year, and former major champions Nick Price and Jeff Sluman also are scheduled to compete.

• Mayakoba is located about 40 minutes south of Cancun on the Caribbean Coast of the Riviera Maya. The El Cameleon course is a par-70 layout of just 6,923 yards with plenty of water.

• Driving accuracy also is important at this stop, which explains Funk's success last year. Olin Browne is the highest ranked player in the field in hitting fairways, ranking fourth at 78.85 percent.

• Todd Demsey, who has overcome two surgeries for a benign brain tumor to return to the PGA TOUR for the first time since 1997, is looking to make his first cut in six starts this week in Mexico.

• His big hurdle has been putting (he ranks 163rd in putts per round) and after six years with a long putter, he tried a short putter at the Buick Invitational before switching back to the long model.