Caddie's Role: There is a definite contrast between the Riviera Club squeezed into the suburbs north of LA and the isolated Gallery Club at Dove Cove north of Tucson, Arizona.

Apart from the dramatic desert scenery of Tucson, the course represents the very new in golf, whereas Riviera reeks of the old.

Among other reasons, one of the main problems with the Accenture Matchplay tournament when held in the La Costa Club near San Diego was that it was a traditionally rain-sodden event. Apparently it rained again there last week, so perhaps it was a good move to go to the desert.

It is a sign of the expansion of the game that my player, Retief Goosen, has played three out of his first four events surrounded by sand. In further contrast, we are on our way to the lush environs of the southern Thailand island of Phuket for our next event.

The Riviera course is a classic design with clever use of a sloping piece of land. A mix of holes whereby the architect, George Thomas, adopted the creative style of making the angle of approach paramount to reward good play. The course is limited in length but challenging by its subtlety. Its greens are diminutive.

The Gallery course, on the other hand, designed by John Fought, was created out of desert scrub and saguaro cacti and relies on the challenge of its extremely large, undulating greens. The result of the course set up for the Matchplay was that most pins were cut at the extremities of the putting surfaces. As a caddie, you had to think twice about going to leave the bag down by the side of the green as your player putted out, the journey was that long.

The first World Golf Championship of the year is uncharacteristically the only big-field matchplay event of the modern era. The ultimate objective of a round of golf is not simply to drive the ball well, hit good approach shots, putt great and use a sensible strategy. It is, of course, to get around in as few shots as possible.

The theory all changes in matchplay. Head-to-head you have to get around in fewer shots than your opponent. The modern golfer is not alone programmed to live his professional life in week-long cycles during a tournament. Starting on Monday with the journey to the next destination and hopefully ending on Sunday at the prize ceremony. He is also conditioned to habitually get the ball into the hole in as few shots as possible.

They play practice rounds to learn the nuances of a course and develop a strategy for each hole depending on temperature and wind conditions. The world rankings of golf are based almost solely on performances at four-round events.

The draw for last week's event paired the best-ranked player, Tiger Woods, against the lowest-ranked player, JJ Henry, and so on throughout the rankings. Despite the advantage of a higher ranked player over four rounds of strokeplay, the rankings bear little relevance to the chances of a contestant over 18 holes of matchplay. Both players in practice have a fair chance of winning. This is why there seems to be so many upsets in this event.

Retief, ranked sixth in the world, was paired against the 38th-best player, Niclas Fasth from Sweden. Retief was one down after the first hole having birdied the par five. By the 10th we were three down, having lost that par five to yet another eagle from the Swede. Fasth was seven under after 10. Retief played well, he was five under when Niclas beat us on the 18th.

Combined with his six-under-par total against his first-round opponent, Scott Verplank, there is no doubt he would have been on the leaderboard in a four-round strokeplay contest. Instead he was packing to go home by Thursday.

Stephen Ames has not featured all year on the leaderboard and his first-round better-ranked opponent, Robert Karlsson, has played consistently well for the past two years. Karlsson took a long drive back to the clubhouse from the 11th green having been beaten 8 and 7. Ames was eight under and cheekily chipped in on the 11th green when the Swede was poised to make his comeback with a three-foot birdie putt, which he went on to miss.

There were, on the surface, many casualties earlier on in last week's championship. However, to those in the game there are no upsets in 18-hole matchplay, only misguided expectations. Today there are no pushovers at the top level like there may have been 10 years ago.

As a private aircraft made its ascent over The Gallery course in southern Arizona last Wednesday afternoon a player remarked to his caddie that it was probably Thomas Bjorn heading home after being dispatched by Trevor Immelman early in the back nine.

No surprise that the South African won nor that the vanquished can board a private jet for an early departure. The Matchplay was the event that put Geoff Ogilvy on the world stage of golf last year and probably gave him the confidence to win the US Open later last year. The Matchplay can be the launching pad for "lesser" players to make a name for themselves. The surprise is that anyone is surprised by that.