Coetzee excited about facing off with Mcilroy

SOUTH Africa’s George Coetzee is in for the golf game of his life when he takes on world No 2 Rory Mcilroy in the first round of the $8,5-million (about R65-million) Wgc-accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona tomorrow.

The 25-year-old from Pretoria, ranked 66th in the world, earned a spot in the 64-man draw when the injured Paul Casey withdrew, while fellow South African Ernie Els also got a late call-up when Phil Mickelson announced he would skip this week’s tournament at Dove Mountain. Els was ranked 65th at the time but he has since dropped to 68th and is the lowest ranked player in the field which means he comes up against world No1 and defending champion Luke Donald tomorrow.

And since Coetzee yesterday moved just ahead of Els in the world rankings, he is now the player with the second lowest ranking in the Match Play draw which means he is scheduled to go in against the player with the second highest ranking – Mcilroy (who in turn has just moved past Lee Westwood to be the new No 2).

Coetzee played a good deal of tennis in his younger days and thought about a career in the game before switching to golf. And therefore he can appreciate, for instance, that the world’s 66th-ranked tennis player is not in a month of Sun- days going to beat the current world No2, Rafael Nadal. It just doesn’t happen that way in tennis.

“But golf ’s different,”admitted Coetzee from Arizona yesterday. “In 18 holes of match play the guy ranked 66 – me in this case – just might have a good day while the No2 misses a putt or two. And there you are – you have an upset. So while I’m grateful just to have a tee-time in a tournament of this magnitude, you know in match play golf you’ve always got a chance so I’m pretty excited (about playing Rory).”

Mcilroy is a huge talent, but Coetzee has played some fine golf himself both in 2011 and this season on the European Tour and he will definitely go into the match with confidence.

Because Els, struggling with his form, has dropped so low in the rankings he will, as things stand, miss the Masters in April as only the top 50 in the rankings crack a spot in the Augusta showpiece. He’s running out of time, too, so the Accenture may be his last chance saloon. A fine showing this week would therefore help turn things around, and that would mean Els first beating Donald tomorrow. And again, that’s certainly not impossible.

Of the three other South Africans in the draw, Masters champion Charl Schwartzel takes on American Gary Woodland, Louis Oosthuizen goes up against Australia’s Aaron Baddeley and Retief Goosen plays American Brandt Snedeker. The Goose’s position with respect to the Masters, incidentally, is also precarious as he is currently ranked 50th.

If Coetzee hadn’t made it to the Match Play, he would have been back in South Africa this week defending his title in the R3,5-million Telkom PGA Championship which begins at Country Club Johannesburg on Thursday.

Branden Grace and Thomas Aiken have both withdrawn from the tournament, leaving SA Open champion Hennie Otto, Darren Fichardt, Richard Sterne, James Kingston, James Kamte and Jbe Kruger – fresh from his victory in the Avantha Masters in India on Sunday – as the main drawcards.