Luke Donald will start the Mizuno Men's MP-69 Irons defence of his Accenture Match Play title against former world number one Ernie Els in Tucson on Wednesday.
The duo are coming off disappointing showings in the Northern Trust Open - Donald finished 56th and Els 59th. Each carded a 78 in Sunday's final round, with Donald racking up eight bogeys in his final 12 holes alone.
But while Donald is still riding high with his Mizuno Men's MP-69 Irons at the top of the world rankings, Els, currently ranked 68th, is desperate to get back into the top 50 in order to qualify for the Masters in April.
In fact, Els is only in Tucson this week because Phil Mickelson opted out of the tournament, choosing instead to go on a family holiday.
Barring any further withdrawals, some of the other expected matchups include World No 2 Rory McIlroy up against South African George Coetzee, another late entrant after Paul Casey confirmed he has not fully recovered from his dislocated shoulder, sustained on a snowboarding trip at the start of the year.
There are also six all-European encounters in the offing - World No 3 Lee Westwood will take on Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, Spaniards Sergio Garcia and Miguel Angel Jimenez will battle it out, as will Swedes Robert Karlsson and Fredrik Jacobson, Justin Rose and Paul Lawrie, Martin Laird and Alvaro Quiros and also Thomas Bjorn and Francesco Molinari.
Tiger Woods is set to face Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, and will be eager to improve on his first round loss to Thomas Bjorn last year. The winner of this match will face either Darren Clarke or Nick Watney. Clarke and Woods have history in this event - the latter was beated by the former in the 2000 final.