John Daly gathers crowds, even occasionally his fellow professionals. Having emptied a satchel of balls into shin-high grass around the practice green, he chipped one-handed, the other clutching a super size drink, while conducting a conversation with sundry players.

After five minutes he switched the beverage to the other hand - it was probably a little cold - and continued the one-armed exhibition. The majority of the balls nestled puddle-like within a couple of feet from the pin.

As a sideshow it was entertaining, but yesterday Daly tuned into a more serious challenge, an all-American tussle with Phil Mickelson, a favourite with the locals. It was arguably the glamour tie in the second round of the WGC Accenture World Matchplay Championship, a confrontation that eschewed safety in favour of a more pulse-quickening grip-it and rip-it philosophy.

Daly arrived on the tee first, shortly followed by Mickelson, the latter stopping to introduce himself to various officials, dedicated to the match, complete with firm handshake, a smile and eye contact.

"Your name is? Bob. Well Bob, thanks for helping us out today."

His thoughts then turned to his opponent, whom he greeted with: "Good to see you, John. Have a good match."

Mickelson had the honour, and just before he struck the first ball he once again faced Daly offering: "Best of luck, John."

It doesn't matter whether the cynics would consider it a tad shallow or overly saccharine, the man has impeccable manners. Throughout the contest Lefty would never once fail to acknowledge his opponent's good play.

Daly drove on the announcer's follow through - not quite, but we're talking milliseconds. At one point on the third hole Mickelson had barely completed his follow through when Daly launched his counter-offensive.

The boys were quick, but frustrated by the match ahead, and had to idle while they waited for fairways and greens to clear.

It affected Daly more, and he struggled to find a rhythm off the tee: indeed his first five tee-shots all missed their target, three fairways, two greens. His opponent claimed the initiative on the par five third, smashing a drive and three-wood to 14 feet.

Daly's bogey on the fifth was the product of another poor tee-shot. He elected to go with the putter from about six yards off the green, but came up short seven feet short of the cup. It was a tough audience, one wag venturing: "Nice Texas (wedge) John, NOT."

Two down, it should have been four but Mickelson over-read a couple of short putts.

When the left-hander found water on the eighth he handed back one hole, and Daly capitalised by holing a long birdie putt on the ninth to turn all square.

Mickelson, though, rarely gets flustered, at least outwardly, and he simply recalibrated his game, producing a run of an eagle and two birdies in five holes to the 14th to emphatically wrest control at three-up.

It wouldn't be vintage Mickelson unless there were further twists, and an errant tee-shot at the 15th pre-empted a bogey that reduced Daly's deficit to a couple down.

The latter managed to rescue a couple of pars, although that was never going to suffice as Mickelson closed out the match on the penultimate green for a 2 and 1 victory.

The winner admitted he'd escaped with a less than assured performance on the greens.

"I struck the ball very well but I didn't have the confidence on the greens. I could see the lines but couldn't get the ball in the hole."