There were two significant factors to emerge from the Accenture WGC Match Play in the desert of Tucson as far as ISM players were concerned.

The rise of Rory McIlroy continued with America becoming aware of his talent thanks to wins over Louis Oosthuizen, Hunter Mahan and Tim Clark, who had himself put out Tiger Woods.

Just as significant was the performance of Ernie Els, whose record in Tucson was something he was keen to improve on after falling at the first hurdle in his two previous visits.  Ernie was impressive through wins over Soren Hansen, Steve Stricker and Luke Donald before finally succumbing to the dogged Stewart Cink in the quarter finals. Cink had earlier knocked out Lee Westwood although he did need 23 holes to do it - the week's longest match.

Ernie now moves to his home base in Florida and he will be keen to defend Honda this week before moving on to Doral's Blue Monster where he is also a previous winner for the CA Championship.   The South African is quietly coming into just the kind of form that will make him a challenger for the Masters.

Rory is also in action at The Honda in Palm Beach as is Darren Clarke after a short break.   I feel we are in for a big week.

Elsewhere in the world, I'd like to bet that Simon Dyson would want more European Tour events played in Asia.  He never fails to impress there and last weekend was no exception with a runner up finish to Thongchai Jaidee in the Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open.  I can also see Simon, a former Asian Tour money list winner rapidly climbing the world rankings again to bolster our standing in the top 100.