this year's Lobster Pot Bermuda PGA Match Play Championships.

Sixteen golfers tee it up, starting at noon today, for the first round of play at the short-but-challenging Riddell's Bay course.

The field will be cut in half for tomorrow's 18-hole quarter-finals, and halved again for Wednesday's semi-finals. The final is scheduled for Thursday.

Among the field will be last year's champion, Dwayne Pearman who, along with Cornell Bean, has dominated the competition over the last half-dozen years.

Keith Smith, last year's finalist, Kim Swan, who finished second to Pearman in this year's Order of Merit standings, and Barry DeCouto also figure to challenge.

For the first time since the 1980s, the tournament heads to Riddell's Bay, which figures to be a good tactical challenge for match-play strategy.

Says Castle Harbour professional Kevin Benevides: "The guy who uses his head is going to come out on top.'' The tournament is the first on the 1997 Order of Merit calendar.

Pearman, who won the Bermuda PGA in March, and Swan have already qualifed to represent the Island in the World Cup qualifier in Jamaica this October based on the PGA Order of Merit.

The qualifier brings together 32 different countries, with the top ten advancing. In previous years, there were four different zone qualifying tournaments.