WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship Friday - The Tournament so far

La Costa Resort in California was the first host venue of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship and was dogged with weather delays but none quite as bizarre as the one that hit the first day of the 2013 championship at Dove Mountain in Arizona. Play began on Thursday but no matches were completed and 10 didn't even get started after a snow storm blew across the course and scenes reminiscent of the Alps wiped out the first day of the championship. The snow continued to fall overnight Wednesday to Thursday with 2 inches covering the course in addition to what fell on Wednesday, this coupled with the traditional morning frost in the desert meant play was further delayed on Thursday. The first round eventually re-started at 1pm local time and what a first round it was, almost as shocking as the wintry weather which greeted the 64 competitors.

The WGC-Accenture Match Play is famous for surprises and this year has been no different with both the World Number One and World Number Two crashing out in the first round. The surprise defeats of Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods meant that the championship continued its history of not having a final between the best two players in the world, continuing to make a mockery of the seeding process which is designed to keep the best players apart until the later stages of the championship. For McIlroy the inevitable speculation around the impact of changing clubs will continue and his elimination by former Irish team-mate Shane Lowry means he has only played three competitive rounds all season going into the defence of his Honda Classic title next week. Tiger Woods already has a title in the bag this year but his defeat to Howell was worrying because Tiger wasn't ahead at any stage of the match and didn't play particularly poorly, Howell had several chances to extend his advantage throughout the round and it was somewhat of an achievement for Woods to take the match to the 17^th.

The loss of the two most famous players in the field is undoubtedly a blow to the tournament, perhaps the addition of a group stage is something the International Federation of PGA Tours need to look at for the future, this would ensure everyone played a minimum of three matches and keep everyone in with a chance of reaching the last 16.

McIlroy and Woods were not the only big names to be sent packing on Thursday, with Adam Scott, Lee Westwood, Charl Schwartzel, Jason Dufner, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Zach Johnson, Branden Grace, Keegan Bradley, Ernie Els, Bill Haas, Jamie Donaldson and Paul Lawrie all eliminated by lower ranked players in the first round. 15 of the leading 32 players in the field were upset and the tournament looked open for Luke Donald and Louis Oosthuizen, on paper at least.

The 'upsets' continued into the second round with Justin Rose being ousted by lower ranked but current World Match Play Champion Nicolas Colsaerts. The Belgian prevailed by a 4&2 margin and remained on course to become the first golfer to hold both match play titles simultaneously, the 2012 European Ryder Cup team member will play The Players Champion Matt Kuchar in the third round on Saturday after the American overcame Sergio Garcia 2&1 at the 17^th hole. With McIlroy and Woods crashing out on Thursday 2011 Champion Luke Donald would have fancied his chances but he too was sent packing in no uncertain terms as Scott Piercy hammered the World Number Three 7&6 and the elimination of the world's leading four golfers was completed by Robert Garrigus as he dispatched 2012 Masters runner-up Louis Oosthuizen 3&2. 2011 Runner-up Martin Kaymer edged Rafael Cabrera-Bello 2&1 to reach the last 16, he was joined by defending champion Hunter Mahan, 2010 champion Ian Poulter, 2011 Players Champion Tim Clark and the Swede Fredrik Jacobson.

Jason Day has been absent from the top of the leaderboard over the last 12 months but he continued his fine form this week by edging rookie Russell Henley at the 19^th hole, the match ebbed and flowed throughout the day but the same couldn't be said for the match between Shane Lowry and Carl Pettersson, as the victor over Rory McIlroy hammered his opponent 6&5. Lowry won the Portugal Masters last October, his first win as a professional and second European Tour title of his career and now seemingly has the confidence to compete with the best. The other perpetrator of a shock win over one of the world's top two Charles Howell III didn't fare as well as Lowry as he was on the end of a beating by Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, the Spaniard is playing at the tournament for the second time in his career and with the elimination of both Sergio Garcia and Rafael Cabrera-Bello he is the lone Spanish player to have qualified for the last 16.

The Masters Champion Bubba Watson enjoyed a dramatic 22^nd hole victory over Jim Furyk, in another tight match between two Americans Steve Stricker and Nick Watney battled for 21 holes before the former World Number Two prevailed.

Graeme McDowell and Alexander Noren became the fourth second round match to go beyond 18 holes and the 2010 US Open champion advanced to the third round after 20 holes. Webb Simpson edged Peter Hanson at the 18^th.

Due to the snow the round of 16 will take place on Saturday morning, meaning 72 holes over the weekend for those who want to reach the semi-finals on Sunday, 16 matches in two days will make it is a Frantic final weekend of February for some of the world's best golfers in Arizona. Incredibly the world will not see live coverage of the round of 16 as the host broadcasters have declined the opportunity to come on air earlier than planned to cover the tournament in its entirety, so live coverage will begin at 5pm GMT on Sky Sports 3 / 12pm ET on Golf Channel. I have been extremely critical of the coverage of the PGA Tour in recent weeks from Golf Channel and CBS and despite the World Golf Championships being European Tour events us “International” viewers have to put up with totally substandard coverage and this weekend it will sink to a new low, even for the ridiculous Golf Channel.

The re-scheduling of the third round from Friday to Saturday means play will begin much earlier than had originally been planned, and at least 3-4 hours ahead of the broadcast window on Golf Channel and then NBC in the afternoon. I live in the UK and the major broadcaster of golf here is Sky Sports, they are a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week sports network on satellite television with four channels dedicated to showing live sport, and they cover every European Tour event, every PGA Tour event, all four World Golf Championships, The Masters, the US Open, USPGA and the Ryder Cup among 100 live tournaments every year. When the tournament they are covering changes times because of the weather they change their broadcast times to cover the tournament to its full extent. Up until the last three years they broadcast on site at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship with their own presentation team, commentators, analysts and on-course reporters, they covered the World Golf Championships like Majors. Since 2010 we on this side of the Atlantic have had to put up with an “International” commentary team, which does include Ewen Murray (Sky's lead commentator), the team is led by the quite awful monotone John Swantek and his equally annoying partner Craig Perks but the pictures and the broadcast times are still dictated by the host broadcasters Golf Channel on NBC.

This refusal to come on air early is absolutely staggering, it is a match play tournament and to miss virtually and entire round of the competition is completely unforgivable and unacceptable. We are told by the PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem that one of the reasons for the WGC's being entrenched within the United States is television, well I am afraid Mr Finchem you are sorely misled if you think the American networks cover golf the best. The Golf Channel was launched in 1995, the word Golf is key here because it is a channel dedicated to covering the subject of Golf, so it surely comes as somewhat of a surprise that the Golf Channel could not find room in their schedule to cover the first World Golf Championship of the year to its full extent. Other networks can be given an exception because they cover other sports or have other programmes to show, the Golf Channel does not. This gives further support to the point I made in my blog last Monday.

“the WGC's would be broadcast like Majors, not like PGA Tour events, golf broadcasters from all parts of the world would be welcome to apply for credentials to cover the tournaments on site and work with the production team to provide coverage tailored to their audience. Each broadcaster would be able to present their coverage on site and use their own commentators, on-course commentators would be limited to ensure minimum disruption to play.”

For the world not to see live coverage of the third round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is a crime and it is beyond time that the broadcasting of the WGC events matched the Major Championships.

We may not see the third round live but these are the matches that will kick-off a bumper day of match play from Arizona

SHANE LOWRY	GRAEME MCDOWELL
BUBBA WATSON	JASON DAY
ROBERT GARRIGUS	FREDRIK JACOBSON
NICOLAS COLSAERTS	MATT KUCHAR
GONZALO FERNANDEZ-CASTANO	WEBB SIMPSON
MARTIN KAYMER	HUNTER MAHAN
SCOTT PIERCY	STEVE STRICKER
TIM CLARK	IAN POULTER

The last 16 will include 7 Europeans, 7 Americans, 1 Australian and 1 South African with 9 different nationalities represented at the start of the weekend.

My next blog will be on Saturday night looking ahead to the Semi-Finals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.