Casares (Spain), Oct 27 : Jeev Milkha Singh adds another feather to his well-adorned cap as he becomes the first Indian to tee up at the 16-man World Matchplay Championships Thursday.

The Asian Tour No. 1 Jeev, who took a week off to rest his ailing ankle, said: "The field is absolutely world class and it will be good to play against them in match play."    

Jeev, who has run up a string of firsts in his illustrious career, added: "My ankle, because of which I made some changes in my schedule, is still not fully fine. But I am hoping it will hold up in matchplay. If I get past the first stage and make the semi-finals, then it will get even more challenging."    

Spain and Volvo hold great memories for Jeev, who has in the past won the Volvo China Open and the Volvo Masters of Europe in 2006. "Volvo sure does have some great memories for me and I hope to feed off that," said Jeev.    

This is the first time in 45 editions that an Indian will be playing the event. "It is always an honour to see the Indian flag fly at an international event," said Jeev.    

This year Jeev played with the goal of making the PGA Tour, the world's biggest and most competitive tour. "I have been playing US and Europe and will finish off with the Race to Dubai," said Jeev, who has been grouped with Lee Westwood, Camilo Villegas and Ross Fisher.

Jeev plays Westwood Thursday and will then meet Villegas and Fisher Friday.    

The 16-man field is grouped based on their seeding as determined by Tuesday's Official World Golf Ranking. On Thursday and Friday each player will play their group members in a round robin format over full 18-hole matches with points awarded based upon a win, tie or loss. The leading player from each group will qualify for the semi-final knock out stage with aggregate number of holes won used to determine tied positions.    

The Championship will be held in Spain for the first time in its history moving from Wentworth Club to the magnificent 7,439-yard course at Finca Cortesin.    

The winner of each group will qualify for the semi finals to be held on Saturday, which, along with the final on Sunday, will be played over 36 holes in the traditional head-to-ead match play format. The semi finals will be contested between the winner of Groups A and B and C and D.    

The total prize money for the 2009 Volvo World Match Play Championship will be ?3,250,000.    

Groups:    

Seve Ballesteros Group A: Paul Casey, Retief Goosen, Anthony Kim and Scott Strange    

Mark McCormack Group B: Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Robert Allenby, Oliver Wilson    

Gustaf Larson Group C: Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy, Angel Cabrera, Simon Dyson    

Assar Gabrielsson Group D: Lee Westwood, Camilo Villegas, Ross Fisher and Jeev Milkha Singh.(IANS)