Accenture Match Play 2012: Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood in True Championship

The 2012 Accenture Match Play Championship brackets were clearly created to put Tiger Woods on a collision course with both Lee Westwood and Rory McIlory.

Had Woods defeated Nick Watney in the second round, he would have faced off against Westwood yesterday afternoon, which, by no coincidence, was the match that began at 2:17pm EST. That means that the entire match would have been covered on national television.

Had Woods defeated Westwood, he would have then faced off against McIlory—a guy that everyone is touting to be “the next Tiger Woods"—this morning.

But, of course none of that happened.

Woods putting woes continued at Dove Mountain, and he was lucky to get by Gonzalo Fdez-Castano in Round 1, let alone actually have a five-footer on 18 to send his match against Watney into extra holes, which, almost predictable these days, Woods missed badly and was sent packing before Friday for the third consecutive time at the Accenture Match Play.

But none of that matters now. Although the brackets were created for Woods to star in a few made-for-TV matches, in the end we were given a true world golf championship.

Westwood and McIlroy will face off against each other this morning in a battle for the No. 1 spot in the World Golf Rankings.

Each player can oust Luke Donald atop the WGRs this weekend with a win at the Accenture Match Play Championship.  

Although the winner of the Westwood vs. McIlory match will need to defeat either Hunter Mahan or Mark Wilson in the finals this afternoon to claim that No. 1 spot, essentially this morning’s Westwood vs. McIlroy match is as close as we will get to a true WGC this entire week.

Johnny Miller and NBC Sports might not come on the air until 2pm EST this afternoon. But in this modern day era of professional golf—which includes a revolving door atop the World Golf Rankings—the match taking place at 7:20am local time and 9:20am EST between Westwood and McIlory is just about as big is it gets.

So, Woods may be sitting at home in South Florida right now trying to figure out how not to let his balky putter turn him into the next Ben Hogan, Sam Snead or Tom Watson, much to the chagrin of network executives, but the Accenture Match Play Championship ultimately delivered—even though things probably didn't shake out the way in which they had initially intended. 

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