TORONTO, Feb 19: Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen are the top four seeds for the World Golf Championships (WGC) match play event in Carlsbad, California next week, tournament organisers said on Friday.

The elite 64-man field will be divided into four brackets and seeded one to 16 with the top-ranked golfer facing off against the lowest-rated player in a straight knockout format.

As the current world number one, Fiji's Singh will face Japan's Shingo Katayama in his opening match. Defending champion Woods, who could reclaim top spot at this week's Nissan Open, will play Zimbabwe's Nick Price in his first match while Mickelson will take on fellow American Loren Roberts.

South Africa's Goosen is scheduled to play Australia's Stephen Leaney. Starting on Wednesday, the match play championship is one of four events that make up the WGC along with the American Express Championship, the NEC Invitational and the Algarve World Cup in Portugal. -Reuters