The first World Golf Championship event of 2013 tees off at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Dove Mountain in Arizona this week.
It’s the 15th year of the WGC Accenture Matchplay, an event that puts the world’s biggest names head-to-head in a unique competition over five days, all of which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
It is a straight-knockout event, with the 64 of the top 68 players on the sport’s official world rankings battling over 18 holes in the matchplay format, with the likes of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood all aspiring to lift the Walter Hagen Cup.
British players have enjoyed great success at the event in recent years, though Last year Hunter Mahan (above) denied Britain a third straight victory at the competition.
The American lifted a WGC trophy for the second time in his career after defeating Rory McIlroy 2 and 1 in the final.
Had McIlroy triumphed, he would have followed in the footsteps of 2010 winner Ian Poulter and 2011 champion Luke Donald.
Having finished runner-up last year, McIlroy will hope to go one better and secure his debut World Golf Championship title, but he had a difficult start to his season after missing the cut at the recent Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, his first and only event so far this season.
That win for Mahan in 2012 set the tone for a strong year for the American, who became his country’s highest ranked player when he holed the Shell Houston Open just over a month later.
It’s the fourth consecutive year that Arizona has been chosen to stage the event.
The Ritz-Carlton course was designed by America’s legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus and, with a total length of 7,849 yards, is sure to challenge the power of the world’s elite.
A straight knock-out tournament, the action gets underway on Wednesday and finishes on Sunday, when the two morning semi-finals will be followed in the afternoon by the 18-hole final.
Sky Sports will have live coverage of all five days of the tournament, with the action getting underway on Sky Sports 1 on Wednesday, February 20, at 5.00pm.
David Livingstone presents the action with analysis in the studio from Oliver Wilson.
Sky’s Ewen Murray will be part of the commentary team for the international freed alongside John Swantek and Craig Perks, with reports and interviews from Rob Lee and Tim Barter.
The World Golf Championship series consists of four tournaments, all of which will be shown exclusively live on Sky Sports throughout the year.
In early March, TPC Blue Monster in Florida will stage the WGC Cadillac Championship, August sees the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at the Firestone Country Club in Ohio, before the series culminates at the WGC HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
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