Stricker wins but tournament proves a loser

Steve Stricker, who finished 113th on the US money list last year and had not made a cut in any tournament since July, won the Accenture Matchplay championship at the Metropolitan club in Melbourne yesterday.

Stricker, 90th in the world rankings, beat Sweden's Pierre Fulke, classed 45th, by 2 and 1, winning US$1 million, while Fulke took away $500,000. That lesser sum is sufficient to lift Fulke to the top of the European Order of Merit and ensures his place in the team for the Ryder Cup in September.

In a completely colourless final, Stricker was the right winner, stronger off the tee and more reliable around the greens. He won the first hole of the 36hole final and was never behind, although his figures, one-under for the 35 holes played, indicate the moderate standard.

The American is an extremely good striker of the ball, and in 1996 won twice on the US Tour and finished fourth in their money list. He seemed a genuine prospect, but decided last October he'd had enough of golf after four successive missed cuts.

He had not played competitively since until arriving in Melbourne and said that reaching the final was "kinda unbelievable".

But Stricker made the most of it, as exemplified by his play of the par-four 34th hole, when he was one-up on Fulke. He drove into a bunker, came out into a greenside bunker and then recovered to five feet. It was a vital putt and, perhaps inspired by an electronic scoreboard by the green which read: "If necessary the play-off holes will start at the 14th," he holed it for a half.

The match ended at the next when Fulke found an impossible lie in a greenside bunker.

In the third place play-off, Ernie Els played as though in a deep depression, which he may have been, given that he had lost a semi-final against Fulke which he should have won. The South African does not normally allow such things to affect him, but then he does not normally have to play 18 meaningless holes as a consequence.

However, at least he had turned up and given the tournament some meaning right through to the end of Saturday's play. At the end of that day the sponsors had precisely the combination from the semis that they did not want - Els versus Toru Taniguchi as a final would satisfy corporate marketing perfectly - but such are the whims of matchplay.

In fact, the third place match - won by the Japanese 4 and 3 - was seen by marginally the bigger of two very poor crowds. In relative terms - this was supposed to be a major event final - the course was practically deserted, the atmosphere non-existent, even though the organisers had, as they say in the theatre, papered the house.

They gave 300 stewards two extra tickets each for the weekend - £32,000 sterling - and told them to phone a friend and get them to come along.

But still it didn't work, and in terms of the aims and objectives of the World Golf Championships this week has been a fiasco, summed up by the fact that a mere 18 spectators paid to watch yesterday's final.