ANYONE searching for an example of how matchplay differs from strokeplay needs only to reflect on the contrasting fortunes of Tiger Woods and Stephen Ames in the space of a month last year.

In the lead-up to the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in February, Ames was asked about his prospects going into a firstround match against the world number one. With Woods struggling for consistency off the tee, and with a format that routinely throws up surprise results, Ames gave himself a chance.

"How he [Woods] goes about scoring from where he hits it, that's the amazing thing, " said the Canadian.

"That's the mark of a true champion, as bad as he hits it, he still manages to win golf tournaments."

While it was later explained that Ames made his remarks with a wry smile, Woods was seriously unimpressed. Their match, if it could be called that, eventually finished on the 10th green where Woods offered his bewildered opponent a perfunctory handshake.

One reporter asked Woods if he had been aware of Ames's comments. "Yes, " came the reply. And what was his reaction to those comments? "9 and 8, " said Woods.

However, less than four weeks after his matchplay humiliation, Ames produced the best golf of his life to win the prestigious Players Championship at Sawgrass.

It didn't go unnoticed that he finished 15 strokes ahead of Woods.

If Woods has claimed ownership of the WGC tournaments since their inception in 1999, winning both the strokeplay American Express Championship and the Bridgestone Invitational on five occasions, and if once again he is the favourite and top seed for this week's matchplay event (which has moved to a new home at the Gallery club near Tucson in Arizona after being staged for seven of the last eight years at La Costa in California) he is as aware as anyone of how the format makes upsets unavoidable.

A player can recover from one modest round in a strokeplay event, but in the short, breathless sprint of matchplay, there is usually no reprieve. "It begins at the very first hole, " Woods has said of the Accenture. "You can shoot four or five under, and you're still going home."

Meanwhile, Ernie Els, who is scheduled to meet his fellow South African, Charl Schwartzel, in Wednesday's first round, has spoken of the different atmosphere when the players go head-to-head in matchplay. "You check into your hotel and you see you're booked for seven nights, but you know you might be leaving in a day or two. So you're on edge."

That, in essence, is the Accenture's problem and the reason why it remains lower on the food chain than the WGC strokeplay events.

Woods has won twice, and has lost in the 2000 final when Darren Clarke was in unstoppable form, but whereas you would expect him to be in the shake-up on the final day of a major championship, there is every chance that he will be fuelling his private jet for the journey back to Orlando on Wednesday evening.

The possibility that interest may wane in proportion to the number of leading players who are eliminated remains a necessary evil, and when the format throws up underwhelming finals like those between Jeff Maggert and Andrew Magee in 1999, and Steve Stricker and Pierre Fulke two years later, the Accenture becomes a nonevent.

With an overall prize fund of $8m, a winner's cheque of $1.3m and a trifling $35,000 for simply turning up, the leading 64 players in the world rankings - there were 40 Americans at the first event in '99 as opposed to 22 this time - clearly look at it as a lucrative non-event. And for Geoff Ogilvy, it proved to be an important stepping stone.

Ogilvy found himself four down with four to play against Mike Weir in the third round last year, before eventually prevailing at the 21st hole, and in all, the Australian was taken to extra holes four times before he saw off Davis Love in the final. His wasn't just a triumph of mental stamina, it also propelled him to a US Open victory later in the season.

For Ogilvy, who begins the defence of his title against 2001 champion Stricker, putting holds the key to matchplay. "If you putt well from six feet, you're not going to lose many matches. You're going to have a lot of them all week, to stay in holes, to win holes, to halve holes. Whoever holes the most six- to eight-footers is going to be hard to beat."

Significantly for Phil Mickelson, the revelation so far this season has not been the customary brilliance of his short game, but the accuracy of his driving. His victory last weekend at Pebble Beach was noteworthy for the fact that he hit 82 per cent of fairways at an average of 300 yards.

"It doesn't matter who he's playing, " said Sutherland, an Accenture winner in 2002 and runner-up to Mickelson at Pebble Beach, "from the middle of the fairway, Phil will be tough to beat."

If all goes to plan in Tucson, Mickelson is scheduled to meet Woods in the semi-finals, yet the chances of such a mouth-watering contest coming to pass seem remote. In seven WGC matchplay appearances, Mickelson has only reached the quarterfinals once, and despite his impressive current form, he is likely to fall victim to the format yet again.

As for Woods, who has only played once in America so far this season, he is up against world number 64, Brett Quigley, in the first round. Questioned about the task ahead of him, Quigley, not surprisingly, insisted that he was not going to "do a Stephen Ames on this" before adding: "If you think you can win the tournament, you know you'll have to face Tiger sometime. So why not on the first day, on a golf course no one knows?"

Opened just three years ago, the Gallery will also be new ground for the 19 European players in the field. At the moment, the two Irish representatives, PA draig Harrington and Clarke, are due to meet Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia respectively, but if there are any withdrawals by tomorrow, the first round matches will take on a different complexion.

There are bound to be one or two enthralling games, and as an antidote to the diet of strokeplay, the Accenture has its merits. "You spend the whole day watching what your opponent is doing, " says Ogilvy, "whereas in a strokeplay tournament you don't think about it until the last few holes."

But despite the strength of the field, the amounts of cash on offer, and the outside chance of Woods and Mickelson getting to grips with each other, the WGC Match Play is little more than a speed bump on the road to Augusta.

WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY WINNERS 1999 Jeff Maggert (bt Andrew Magee 38th hole) 2000 Darren Clarke (bt Tiger Woods 4 and 3) 2001 Steve Stricker (bt Pierre Fulke 2 and 1) 2002 Kevin Sutherland (bt Scott McCarron 1 hole) 2003 Tiger Woods (bt David Toms 2 and 1) 2004 Tiger Woods (bt Davis Love 3 and 2) 2005 David Toms (bt Chris DiMarco 6 and 5) 2006 Geoff Ogilvy (bt Davis Love 3 and 2)