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The Accenture World Match Play Championship was played last week and it certainly made a nice change to the usual fare of golf on TV.

The general idea of this event is that the top sixty four players in the world, as defined by the world golf rankings, square off against each other. This year, only two of the top sixty four chose not to play who, as it happens, were the top two players in the world, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Tiger gave the event a miss because he is currently playing in the most important event of his life. Tiger is trying desperately hard to extract himself from some self inflicted rough.

If he wins that particular event, it will be the single most important win of his life and will rank ahead of his Tiger Slam.

I'm sure the whole world wishes Tiger the best of good fortune, however, what will be critical is whether or not he is through deceiving us. As he said in his recent press conference, his apology to his wife will not be by way of his words but by way of his deeds. Actions are always more important than words so, for the time being, I'm going to take what Tiger said the other day with a pinch of salt. I'll wait to see if he follows through on what he said he plans to do once he reemerges into the real world.

The Accenture World Match Play was a great event with some wonderful golf played and some exciting matches witnessed. Match play is an odd beast and in any given pairing, any one of the two players can win. Often, the defining element in a match is momentum, where it is, who has it and when it turns.

Momentum can turn in the blink of an eye. A player can be going along just fine, thank you very much, when out of the blue, his opponent doesn't concede a tiny little putt that had been conceded consistently all day long. If that little putt slides by the hole, as it did for Camilo Villegas on the fifth playoff hole of his match with Paul Casey, it can have a dramatic impact on the whole tournament.

Match play can play mind games with golfers. Worry can creep into a player's mind because he somehow knows that two up with five to play never wins. Skies that were blue when leaving the tee can look awfully grey when reaching the green. It is things like that that make match play what it is. You just never know what is going to happen or to whom.

The Bermuda equivalent of the Accenture Match Play event, The Bermuda Match Play Championships, will be played March 8-13 at The Mid Ocean Club. It should be a great week of exciting golf and no doubt will provide many unexpected twists and turns, just like the Accenture World Match Play Championship did.[[In-content Ad]]

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