Woods to meet Holmes in first round of Match Play

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

PACIFIC PALISADES, California (Reuters) - The draw for next week's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, Arizona was announced on Friday, pairing Tiger Woods with fellow American J.B. Holmes in the opening round.

World number one Woods, tournament champion in 2003 and 2004, is the top seed and will be bidding for his 63rd career title on the PGA Tour in the 64-player event.

American Woods, who won last month's Buick Invitational before triumphing in the European Tour's Dubai Desert Classic the following week, will also be hunting his eighth victory in his last nine starts worldwide.

Twice Masters champion Phil Mickelson, American world number three Steve Stricker and fourth-ranked Ernie Els of South Africa are the top seeds in the other three groups.

Left-hander Mickelson, beaten by Holmes in a playoff for this month's Phoenix Open, will launch his campaign against fellow American Pat Perez.

Stricker starts out against Swede Daniel Chopra, winner of the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship, and Els takes on American Jonathan Byrd in Wednesday's first round at Dove Mountain's Gallery Golf Club.

Holder Henrik Stenson of Sweden, who beat Australia's Geoff Ogilvy 2&1 in last year's final, will launch his title defense against Robert Allenby, also of Australia.

The opening World Golf Championships (WGC) event of 2008, being held at Dove Mountain for the second year in a row, was previously staged at La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California.