First-round notes: Accenture Match Play Championship

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First-round notes from the Accenture Match Play Championship

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Anthony Kim won his first match as a newcomer to the Accenture Match Play Championship.

Updated all-time Accenture Match Play Championship win leaders:

No. Player W-L 1 Tiger Woods 32-6 2 David Toms 23-8 3 Davis Love III 19-8 4 Stewart Cink 14-9 5 Phil Mickelson 14-9 6 Darren Clarke 14-7 7 Adam Scott 13-8 8 Retief Goosen 12-10 9 Chris DiMarco 12-7 10 Henrik Stenson 12-3 11 Geoff Ogilvy 12-2

Breakdown of 2009 field of 64 players:
To start the first round:
• International players: 47
• United States players: 17
• Countries represented: 19 (ties the most in tournament history -- 2006)
• Largest international contingent: Australia and South Africa, 8 each
After the first round:
• International players: 19 of the 47 won their first round match
• United States players: 13 of the 17 won their first round match
• Countries represented: 11 of the 19 still in the field
• Largest international contingent following first round: 6, England

Winners of the 32 matches by country (Number of players initially in the field in parentheses)

• Colombia (1)
Camilo Villegas

• Fiji (1)
Vijay Singh

• Germany (1)
Martin Kaymer

• Japan (1)
Shingo Katayama

• Canada (2)
Stephen Ames

• Northern Ireland (2)
Rory McIlroy

• Spain (3)
Miguel A. Jimenez

• Sweden (3)
Peter Hanson

• England (7)
Lee Westwood, Oliver Wilson, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Ross Fisher, Ian Poulter

• Australia (8)
Mathew Goggin, Geoff Ogilvy

• South Africa (8)
Ernie Els, Tim Clark, Charl Schwartzel

• United States (17)
Stewart Cink, Anthony Kim, Phil Mickelson, Zach Johnson, Davis Love III, Justin Leonard, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Hunter Mahan, Boo Weekley,
Sean O'Hair, Pat Perez, Tiger Woods

All-time Accenture Match Play Championship First-Round Results:

• 1999 -- 14 of 32 matches won by top seed (18 upsets)
• 2000 -- 21 of 32 matches won by top seed (11 upsets)
• 2001 -- 20 of 32 matches won by top seed (12 upsets)
• 2002 -- 19 of 32 matches won by top seed (13 upsets)
• 2003 -- 19 of 32 matches won by top seed (13 upsets)
• 2004 -- 20 of 32 matches won by top seed (12 upsets)
• 2005 -- 19 of 32 matches won by top seed (13 upsets)
• 2006 -- 19 of 32 matches won by top seed (13 upsets)
• 2007 -- 21 of 32 matches won by top seed (11 upsets)
• 2008 -- 19 of 32 matches won by top seed (13 upsets)
• 2009 -- 19 of 32 matches won by top seed (13 upsets)

FIRST TIME PARTICIPANTS

Of the 12 first-time participants at the 2009 Accenture Match Play Championship, six came out on top on Wednesday. Two matches had first-time participants going head to head. No one (other than Jeff Maggert in the first event in 1999) has won the Accenture Match Play Championship in their first start.

First-time participants who played other first-timers
• USA's Anthony Kim, (No. 11) defeated Taiwan's Lin Wen-Tang (No. 54), 7 and 5
• Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, (No. 16) defeated South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen (No. 49), 2 and 1

Other first-time participant winners
• England's Oliver Wilson (No. 43) defeated South Korea's K.J. Choi (No. 22), 3 and 1
• Australia's Mathew Goggin (No. 55) defeated USA's Kenny Perry (No. 10), 2 and 1
• England's Ross Fisher (No. 35) defeated Australia's Robert Allenby (No. 30), 1 up
• South Africa's Charl Schwartzel (No. 62) defeated Spain's Sergio Garcia (No. 2), 1 up

Other first-time participant losers
• Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng (No. 53) lost to England's Lee Westwood, 2 and 1
• Spain's Alvaro Quiros (No. 26) lost to Canada's Stephen Ames (No. 39), 1 up
• USA's Dustin Johnson (No. 45) lost to USA's Steve Stricker (No. 20), 2 and 1
• Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen (No. 61) lost to Fiji's Vijay Singh (No. 4), 2 and 1

• Five matches went extra holes during Wednesday's first-round matches:
USA's Stewart Cink def. South Africa's Richard Sterne, 19 holes
USA's Phil Mickelson def. South Africa's Angel Cabrera, 19 holes
USA's Davis Love III def. Sweden's Henrik Stenson, 21 holes
Australia's Geoff Ogilvy def. USA's Kevin Sutherland, 19 holes
England's Luke Donald def. USA's Ben Curtis, 19 holes

• The lowest-ranked player to survive the first round was Charl Schwartzel (No. 63), who defeated No. 2-ranked Sergio Garcia, 1 up. Pat Perez (No. 62) also defeated No. 3-ranked Padraig Harrington, 1 up. The lowest-ranked player to win the Accenture Match Play Championship:

No. 62, Kevin Sutherland, 2002
No. 55, Steve Stricker, 2001
No. 52, Geoff Ogilvy, 2006

TIGER WOODS

• With his victory on Wednesday, Tiger Woods ran his career Accenture Match Play Championship record to 32-6 and has won 24 of his last 27 matches.

• Today was the start of his 14th season on TOUR, and with the exception of his first year on TOUR, he's never finished out of the top 10 in season openers. In fact, he's won six of his 13 season openers including his last three. Woods has made the cut in all 13 previous first starts of the season and has finished in the top three in eight of them.

• Tiger Woods will face South Africa's Tim Clark in the second round. Woods defeated Clark in this event 5 and 4 in 2007.

NOTEWORTHY MATCHES

• The largest margin of victory on Wednesday was 7 and 6, recorded by Camilo Villegas over Rod Pampling. That margin of victory is T4 as the largest in Accenture Match Play Championship history (recorded in seven other matches; two others in the first round). Villegas won nine of the 12 holes played.

• Anthony Kim recorded the second-largest victory margin of the day, defeating Lin Wen-Tang 7 and 5. This is Kim's first start at the Accenture Match Play Championship and just his second World Golf Championships event after finishing T36 at last year's Bridgestone Invitational.

• Robert Karlsson was defeated by fellow Swede Peter Hanson, 3 and 2. This marks the fourth time in four appearances that Karlsson has failed to advance past the first round.

PRESIDENTS CUP PREVIEWS?

• The first-round matches featured nine potential match-ups for the upcoming Presidents Cup. The USA won seven of the nine today:

Tiger Woods (USA) defeated Brendan Jones (Australia), 3 up
Hunter Mahan (USA) defeated Mike Weir (Canada), 1 up
Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) defeated Kevin Sutherland (USA), 19 holes
Phil Mickelson (USA) defeated Angel Cabrera (Argentina), 19 holes
Stewart Cink (USA) defeated Richard Sterne (South Africa), 19 holes
Sean O'Hair (USA) defeated Adam Scott (Australia), 1 up
Mathew Goggin (Australia) defeated Kenny Perry (USA), 2 and 1
Justin Leonard (USA) defeated Andres Romero (Argentina), 2 and 1
Anthony Kim (USA) defeated Lin Wen-Tang (Taiwan), 7 and 5

• There are two "Presidents Cup Preview" matches tomorrow:

South Africa's Ernie Els versus USA's Steve Stricker
Souht Africa's Tim Clark versus USA's Tiger Woods