Associated Press
Wednesday, January 3

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Thirty-two players with $25,000 in their pockets and a bunch of frequent-flyer miles in their accounts packed their bags Wednesday.

Welcome to the Match Play Championship. In Australia, no less.

	Hal Sutton suffered the pain of a first-round defeat to go with back pain.

The single-elimination tournament is renowned for its bitter -- and early -- end for half of the 64-player field after 18 holes or less. Two years ago, Craig Stadler beat Colin Montgomerie at La Costa and said, "They got beat. And they've got a long flight home."

Twenty-two Americans know the feeling.

"A long way for one match? It's a long way for seven matches," said Stewart Cink, a No. 6 seed who was defeated on the 18th hole by Mark McNulty.

For other players like Duffy Waldorf, Bob Estes, John Huston and even the injured Hal Sutton, Wednesday was simply a confirmation that the day of travel required to get Down Under might not have been worth it. "I don't think the travel is really an issue. We're all used to that," Cink said. "It's the time of year and the fact we had to leave our families."

Waldorf, who lost to Jean Van de Velde on the 19th hole, said the allure of the World Golf Championships might be wearing off with some golfers.

"The first couple of years the world championship was going, a lot of guys were anxious to play and showed up for that reason," Waldorf said. "I think the pro tours figured that if we had a world championship event, everyone would be there. But this one proved that's not the case."

And then some.

Forty of the world's best who were eligible to play didn't bother. One who did was Phillip Price, who left behind his 2-week-old son, John Edward.

"In retrospect, it was a long way to come for just 16 holes," Price said after losing 3 and 2 to Andrew Coltart.

He was only in Australia for 72 hours after traveling 24 hours to get to Melbourne, only to board another daylong flight Wednesday afternoon.

"Then you go home and feel just as bad for another three or four days," he said.

Of the 22 Americans ousted in the first round, nine of them will be playing next week in Hawaii in the Mercedes Championship, a tournament for PGA Tour winners in 2000. At least this time, they get a nice layover on the way back.

Others, like Cink and Paulson, were in no hurry to leave.

"There's so many great courses around here, I want to play some of them," Cink said.