‘Oosy’ joins World Match play field

European Tour

Louis Oosthuizen, Aaron Baddeley and Seung-yul Noh will complete the field for the 46th Volvo World Match Play.

Louis Oosthuizen, Aaron Baddeley and Seung-yul Noh will complete the 24-man field for the 46th Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesín next week, it has been announced.

This means the final field boasts all four current Major Champions, six of the leading seven players in the world and, for the first time in a Spanish-based event, all three of the World’s top ranked players.

There are 14 nationalities represented and there are likely to be in excess of 50 OWGR points on offer to the winner in what is the strongest World Match Play Championship field ever put together.

Oosthuizen, 2010 Open Champion, was awarded the sponsors invitation and he completes the quartet of current Major champions in the draw, the others being Graeme McDowell (2010 US Open), Martin Kaymer (2010 PGA Championship) and Charl Schwartzel (The 2011 Masters).

Oosthuizen, who like Schwartzel is a South African, said: “I am very grateful to Volvo for offering me this invitation. With such an elite field I know there were any number of great candidates who were hoping they would get the call up.

“I hope I can make the most of the opportunity and am really looking forward to playing in this historic tournament that I have watched Ernie Els win so many times.”

Australian Aaron Baddeley, a three-time winner on the US PGA Tour, said, “This is a great opportunity for me to play against so many of the world’s best players. I am currently just outside the World’s top 50 so a good finish in a tournament with such high world ranking points could take me into a top 50 spot.

“It looks like there will be some great matches and I am excited to see who I will be grouped with.”

Korea’s Noh, will be the youngest of the 24 players in the field.

He who won last year’s Malaysian Open at the tender age of 18 and can’t wait to take on some of the games biggest guns at Finca Cortesín.

“I am very excited about playing in the Volvo World Match Play Championship in Spain and I am already wondering whose bracket I will be in as there are so many top players I would like to come up against.

“There are too many to mention them all but, for example, I think I would learn a lot from playing an experienced player like Miguel Ángel (Jimenez) and I would have a really fun match with Rory (McIlroy).

Per Ericsson, President of Volvo Event Management – Golf, added, “We are delighted with the quality of our final field. We developed the qualification criteria with the ambition to gather a truly world class international field and with all the current Major winners, six of the World’s top seven ranked players and 14 nationalities represented we feel we have achieved just that.

“Now we are looking forward to seeing how these tantalizing match ups play out over the beautiful Finca Cortesín course next week.”

Vicente Rubio, Managing Director of Finca Cortesín said, “Everything is ready for the 2011 Volvo World Match Play Championship and we are excited to be welcoming this wonderful field of world class players to Finca Cortesín.

Of course, we are very proud to be hosting the top three ranked players in the world and all the current Major Champions.

“There cannot be many too clubs in Europe that have had this honour.”

On arrival at Finca Cortesín in May the players will be divided into eight groups of three players who will play against each other in a round robin format on Thursday and Friday.

After that the top 16 players will go forward to a Saturday knock-out round with the semi-finals and final being played on Sunday.

The prize fund for the Championship has been increased to €3.4 million with a first prize of €800,000, the highest on the European Tour outside of the Majors, World Golf Championship events and the Dubai World Golf Championship.

For more information please visit www.volvoworldmatchplay.com and www.facebook.com/volvoingolf

THE FINAL FIELD

The field is comprised of 24 qualifiers determined by the following criteria:

i) Defending Champion – Ross Fisher

ii) Winner of the 2010 Volvo China Open – YE Yang

iii) The leading two players** (not otherwise exempt above) from the 2010 Andalucía Valderrama Masters – Graeme McDowell and Søren Kjeldsen

iv) The leading player** (not otherwise exempt above) from the 2010 Dubai World Championship – Miguel Ángel Jiménez* (Robert Karlsson withdrew)

v) The top four players (not otherwise exempt above) from the final 2010 European Tour Race to Dubai Rankings:

Martin Kaymer
Lee Westwood
Ian Poulter
Francesco Molinari

vi) The leading player** (not otherwise exempt above) from the 2011 Abu Dhabi Golf Championship
Rory McIlroy

vii) The leading player** (not otherwise exempt above) from the 2011 Volvo Golf Champions
Paul Casey

viii) The leading two players** (not otherwise exempt above) from the 2011 Open de Andalucía
Paul Lawrie
Johan Edfors

ix) The leading player (not otherwise exempt above), based upon his nationality, listed on the Official World Golf Ranking, from each of the following regions following the completion of the 2011 US Masters (11/04/11):

Europe – Luke Donald
Africa/Middle East – Charl Schwartzel
North America – Ryan Moore
South America – Jhonattan Vegas
Asia (comprising China, SE Asia, India, Japan and Korea) – Seung-yul Noh
Australasia (comprising Australia, Fiji and New Zealand) – Aaron Baddeley

x) The leading player (not otherwise exempt above) from the Official World Golf Ranking following the completion of the 2011 US Masters (11/04/11) – Retief Goosen

xi) The leading two players (not otherwise exempt above) from the 2011 European Tour Race to Dubai Rankings following the completion of the 2011 US Masters (11/04/11) – Álvaro Quirós, Anders Hansen

xii) The leading player** (not otherwise exempt above) from the 2011 Volvo China Open (25/04/11) – Nicolas Colsearts
xiii) One sponsor invite taken from the top 50 from the Official World Golf Ranking following the completion of the 2011 US Masters – Louis Oosthuizen.

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