Weather or Not, It’s Now Time to Go One on One

And without further delay, maybe, the beginning of the end of the West Coast swing starts today at wet and mild La Costa, where the $7.5-million Accenture World Match Play Championship finally gets underway.

There are 32 first-round matches scheduled, pushed back from Wednesday to allow the drenched La Costa course to hopefully dry out a bit. The schedule doubles up on Friday and Saturday, with 16 second-round matches and eight third-round matches Friday, then four quarterfinal matches and two semifinal matches Saturday.

“Everybody I’ve talked to that’s come off the golf course, they sarcastically said it’s perfect out there,” David Toms said. “So who knows? But it’s going to be the same for everybody.”

The top players, including Vijay Singh, say they’re ready. The No. 1-ranked player took last week off, which in retrospect looks like a great move after what happened at Riviera Country Club when the Nissan Open was limited to 36 holes because of rain.

Singh, who plays Shingo Katayama in the first round, said he knew he needed some time off after missing the cut at Pebble Beach.

“It was just a long week [at Pebble Beach] and I didn’t play very well and it’s hard to get the momentum going on six-hour rounds,” he said. “I needed to fix a few things.”

Katayama, the lowest-ranked player in the field when the brackets were finalized last week, lost to Singh in the first round a year ago, but Singh was defeated in the next round by Jerry Kelly.

Singh has never made it out of the second round in his five appearances in the match-play tournament.

On the other hand, two-time defending champion Tiger Woods has been to the championship match three of the last four years and his 20-3 record is better than anyone in the 64-player field. Woods defeated Davis Love III, 3 and 2, last year and defeated Toms, 2 and 1, in the 2003 final.

Woods lost to Peter O’Malley in the first round in 2002 and to Darren Clarke in the 2000 final. Jeff Maggert defeated Woods, 2 and 1, in the quarterfinals of the first event in 1999.

Woods plays Nick Price in the first round and isn’t taking anything for granted

“I think when you get into a field like this, anybody can beat anybody in 18 holes,” Woods said. “That’s been proven in this match-play format time and time again. So these are quality players. I’m playing a three-time major championship winner.”

Price, 48, who fell to 103rd on the money list last year, said his putting has come around and he’s anxious to play Woods.

“I’m playing the No. 2 in the world, so I don’t have an awful lot to lose,” he said. “Tiger is obviously going to have a huge advantage over me distance-wise because the course is so wet, but it’s going to be screwy out there. The ball is going to be sliding all over the place and it’s going to be, I think, a patience game.

“In 18-hole match play, the underdog always has the slight advantage from a mental point of view because you’ve really got nothing to lose.”

If that’s true, maybe Loren Roberts can use the same advantage over fourth-ranked Phil Mickelson, seeded third in the tournament.

Mickelson, who took last week off like Singh, said he’s facing something of a burden if he has a slow start.

“Knowing if I don’t play well, I don’t have a Friday,” he said. “I don’t have a round two to make up ground, like I did at the Phoenix Open where I shoot 73 and hang in there and then come back with a 60. I very well may not have had a chance to shoot 60 if I got knocked out the first round.

“That’s just the toughest part, not knowing what you need to shoot. But that’s also the thing I love about it, the uncertainty of it all.”

Mickelson is 7-5 in this match play tournament and lost to Love in the fourth round last year. He also had consecutive first-round defeats, to Billy Mayfair in 2000 and John Cook in 2002. Mickelson didn’t play in 2001.

The other top-seeded player in his bracket is Retief Goosen, whose opening assignment is against the difficult Stephen Leaney, a quarterfinalist last year when he lost to Woods.

The schedule calls for a 36-hole championship match and an 18-hole consolation match Sunday. And as we have learned to say about golf on the West Coast ... weather permitting.