Woods takes his place at Wentworth

Tiger Woods will return to the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth this September for the first time since 1998.

The event, now under the sponsorship of HSBC and with golf's biggest first prize of £1 million, takes place on September 14th-17th, the week before the Ryder Cup in Ireland.

It will be the first leg of a three-way trip across the Atlantic for Woods as the Ryder Cup is followed by his defence of the American Express world championship at The Grove near Watford.

Woods, competing this week at the Players Championship in Florida, reached the final in his one and only appearance at Wentworth before losing on the last green to Mark O'Meara

"The HSBC World Match Play Championship is in its 43rd year and has a great history with some awesome winners," Woods said today when confirming his place.

"I would love to win it and hope that this year will be my year. With the 2006 Ryder Cup matches set for the following week, the 36-hole match play format will be good preparation and we will all be looking for some confidence-boosting wins."

The only other certain starter at Wentworth at the moment is defending champion Michael Campbell.

Ten more will come from performances in the four majors, two more from five designated European Tour events and the final two from the European Order of Merit as of August 28th.