Wentworth, Oct 17: Tim Clark will face fellow-South African and world number two Ernie Els after beating Australian Stephen Leaney 3 and 2 in his first round encounter.
In a tight match, the players were all square at halfway before Leaney went 2-up after six holes of the second round. Leaney then bogeyed three successive holes from the 8th as Clark made pars to give the South African the lead for the first time in the match. Leaney then bogeyed the 15th to go 2-down, then Clark won the match with a birdie at the 16th to clinch his quarter-final spot. Thomas Bjorn of Denmark took advantage of a second-round collapse by American Len Mattiace to win 4 and 3 in the last match of the day. Bjorn was 3-down after the morning round, but eight bogeys by Mattiace in the afternoon presented Bjorn with the win who will face US Masters champion Mike Weir of Canada on Friday (October 17). The field is based on performance in golf's four majors rather than invitation for the first time since the annual autumnal match play tournament was launched in 1964.


Frustratingly for the organisers, it has resulted in a field missing the usual liberal scattering of golf's biggest names after a year of major championship shocks.


Results (prefix number denotes seeding): 5-Vijay Singh (Fiji) beat 12-Alex Cejka (Germany) 8 & 7 6-Chad Campbell (U.S.) beat 11-Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden) 6 & 5 9-Tim Clark (South Africa) beat 8-Stephen Leaney (Australia) 3 & 2 10-Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) beat 7-Len Mattiace (U.S.) 4 & 3


Draw for Friday's second round (tee times GMT): 0745-1210 - 1-Ernie Els (South Africa) v 9-Tim Clark 0800-1225 - 4-Shaun Micheel (U.S.) v 5-Vijay Singh 0815-1240 - 3-Ben Curtis (U.S.) v 6-Chad Campbell 0830-1255 - 2-Mike Weir (Canada) v 10-Thomas Bjorn


Bureau Report