Campbell slams no-show by stars

US Open champion Michael Campbell says the absence of most of the world's top players from this week's World Match Play Championship "is a slap in the face to the sponsors".
World number one Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson have chosen to miss the elite 16-man event at Wentworth while six-times winner and world number four Ernie Els is sidelined by a long-term knee injury.
"It's a little bit disheartening that here we have the biggest (first) prize in the golf world and half the guys don't turn up," Campbell told a news conference yesterday.
Campbell and his 15 title rivals are playing this week for a first prize of £1 million ($NZ2.62 million).
"Obviously they (sponsors HSBC) have the best players available this week and for certain reasons they are not here. To the public eye, it doesn't look good," added Campbell.
"Here they are playing for a million pounds first prize and several players turned it down because it doesn't fit into their schedule.
"I find that quite strange. If you think about it, though, in America they play for $US1 million every week."
Fourth seed Campbell, who starts his campaign with a 36-hole, first-round match against Australian Geoff Ogilvy today, holds the World Match Play Championship in high esteem.
"With the history of it and the past champions, it's got to be right up there, if not equal to the World Golf Championships events that we play," he said.
Retief Goosen, hunting his third tournament victory in successive weeks, faces rank outsider Kenneth Ferrie of Britain in the opening round.
The 36-year-old South African won last Sunday's German Masters after clinching the China Masters the week before.
World number 13 Angel Cabrera of Argentina, the second highest-ranked player in this week's field after Goosen, takes on South Africa's Trevor Immelman.
In one of the most eagerly awaited first-round matches, third seed Luke Donald takes on Germany's Bernhard Langer, the Briton's non-playing captain when Europe beat the US in last year's Ryder Cup.
Britain's Colin Montgomerie, champion in 1999, takes on Australia's Mark Hensby while South African Tim Clark faces Hensby's compatriot Steve Elkington, runner-up in 1995.