This is what Fernandez-Castano said in a pre-tournament news conference at the Dove Mountain Resort, near Tucson. When these comments were put to the three-times Match Play champion, Woods replied: “I feel exactly the same way as he does. I feel he’s beatable, too.”

Let’s see what happened. In his last two tournaments Woods has failed to capitalise on potentially winning positions. He was eclipsed by England’s Robert Rock at the Abu Dhabi Championship and at Pebble Beach slumped to a closing 75 inthe company of  Phil Mickelson, who surged to victory with a final round 64.

“The past Sunday was awful,” admitted Woods, who knows this week’s 18-hole knockout tournament can generate a surfeit of shock results. ”Any guy can win any match. We’ve seen that over the years,” Woods said. “That’s what makes it interesting for us players – and I’m sure for the fans as well.

On the other side, Fernandez-Castano is bidding to emulate Thomas Bjorn‘s achievement of last year when he beat Woods in the first round here. ”Maybe it’s a good chance to play good, and maybe I can beat him. That would be a great feeling. I know I need to play good, because he’s a great matchplayer. He’s won this tournament three times and he has a very good matchplay record.”

Top seed Luke Donald begins his title defence against Ernie Els in the knowledge that his near nine-month reign at world number one might end this week.

Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy could usurp the Englishman if either were to win the tournament. In the event of a McIlroy victory, Donald would need to reach the third round to remain number one.

A Westwood win would take him back to the top of the rankings if  Donald does not reach Saturday’s quarter-finals. Westwood’s first-round opponent is the big-hitting Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, while McIlroy takes on George Coetzee of South Africa.

Picture by: VancityAllie - Flickr
Source: bbc.co.uk