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ART SPANDER
MARANA, ARIZ. | In the end, the winner
of the Accenture Match Play Champion-
ship was Accenture. Ian Poulter was the
one holding the trophy. Tiger Woods might
have been the one holding golf hostage.
But Accenture finished first.
The Woods camp denied the timing was
intentional, that Tiger had been uncaged
from his rehab for only a few days and it
was then or never.
But why Friday? Ernie Els, a second-
round loser in the match play, called the
planning “selfish.” Tim Finchem, the PGA
Tour commissioner, said Sunday he later
met with Els, “and once Ernie understood
the options available,” said Finchem, “he
had a different approach.”
Other players also were less than enam-
ored. Tiger was, as usual, taking control of
a tournament, this time with words rather
than with clubs.
Accenture helps companies around
the world solve problems. As one of those
former Tiger billboards proclaimed, em-
ploying “ 10 percent inspiration, 90 percent
perspiration.” Accenture handled the Tiger
intrusion with no sweat.
“Nothing we could do about it,” said an
Accenture spokesman. Plenty Tiger could
do for Accenture, if inadvertently, since
from the moment it was announced he
would speak, every story seemed to men-
tion he was going against Accenture.
Whatever the judgment of the Woods
confessional, and opinions ranged from
brilliant to insincere, the determination
about Accenture was it came out on top.
That Tiger, still ranked No. 1 in the world,
didn’t play was not unexpected, even though
a year ago at the Accenture he made his
return to competitive golf after the eight-
month hiatus because of knee surgery.
Whatever the judgment of the Woods confessional,
and opinions ranged from brilliant to insincere, the
determination about Accenture was it came out on top.
Ian Poulter, pink pants and all, planned on
playing at Scottsdale.
No Tiger. No Mickelson. That left Steve
Stricker as the No. 1 seed in the 64-man
match-play field. But not for long. Stricker
became the second No. 1 in Accenture his-
tory – Tiger in 2002 was the other – to get
bounced out on Day 1, losing on the 19th
hole to Ross McGowan, who was No. 66 in
the world but got in when Woods and Mick-
elson chose not to play.
The tournament is played at the Ritz-
Carlton Golf Club on Dove Mountain, a
course at 2,700 feet elevation in the foothills
north of Tucson. There’s a ton of tall Saguaro
cacti and a loads of smaller plants, including
the Jumping Cholla, which leap out to stick
the telecast of Tiger, which started around
9 a.m. Mountain Standard Time.
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