Padraig Harrington will face his Ryder Cup teammate Lee Westwood in the first round of the Accenture world match play championship in Tucson on Wednesday, as will former champion Darren Clarke and Sergio Garcia.

The tournament brings together the world's top 64 players, although this year it is 64 of the top 65 as Charl Schwartzel has pulled out of a duel with his compatriot Ernie Els to try to win the South African Order of Merit instead.

That puts American JJ Henry into the field, but he will have to face world number one Tiger Woods on the opening day, while Welshman Bradley Dredge will now play Els.

There are two other all-European games — Colin Montgomerie against Johan Edfors and Luke Donald against Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Clarke, who became Europe's only winner of the title by beating Woods in the 2000 final, thought he might be facing reigning HSBC World Match Play champion Paul Casey.

That was because Arron Oberholser was expected to withdraw with a bad back that has kept him out of action since the first week of January, but the American's name was still in the draw when it was made at the conclusion of the Nissan Open in Los Angeles.

Garcia finished sixth there and Harrington seventh, a disappointing result for the Irishman after he had opened with a 10-birdie 63 and had been only one behind Phil Mickelson with a round to go.

Woods is going for an eighth US Tour win in a row and on having to meet him Henry, making his debut in the event, told the Tour website pgatour.com: "Any chance you get an opportunity to play against the best player in the world and, of course, how he's been playing, will only help me.

"It's a great way for me to go out and see how I match up. I'm looking forward to it."

After being held at the La Costa course in southern California for seven of the past eight years, the tournament has moved to the Gallery south course at Dove Mountain in the Arizona desert outside Tucson, ostensibly for the more reliable weather, although money always plays a role in these decisions.

The tournament endured lousy wet weather more often than not at La Costa, which made everybody unhappy — the players, the sponsors and the American television network that paid big bucks to show players sloshing through waterlogged fairways.

Not that great weather is guaranteed in the desert. After all, it snowed when Dove Mountain was used for the 2001 Tucson Open, a now defunct tournament.

Match Play is a rarely used format at the professional level, and it certainly creates an intensity that stroke play events lack until the final round. It is safe to say that if all events were match play, there would not be so many friendships on tour.

"A stroke play event is a bit more grey, whereas match play it's black or white," said Geoff Ogilvy, the defending champion. "It's a fun deal to play (but) it might be frustrating if you played it every week. Once of twice a year, it's fantastic."

Added Ernie Els: "Any match you play is a final, so you've got to play your best every match."