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Stenson last European standing

Henrik Stenson was left flying the European flag in the chase for the £1million first prize at the HSBC World Match Play Championship…

Fri Oct 12 2007 - 01:00

Henrik Stenson was left flying the European flag in the chase for the £1million first prize at the HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth.

Following the first-round defeats of Open champion Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie and Niclas Fasth, today's quarter-finals saw defending champion Paul Casey and Danish namesakes Anders and Soren Hansen all go out as well.

Despite Anders having a hole-in-one on the 184-yard 10th in their afternoon round, Stenson was a convincing seven and six winner and so still has the chance of an amazing double.  In February, the 31-year-old won the £675,000 Accenture world match play title in Arizona.

"I have a good record and I hope I can make it even better," he said. "I've not been at my best in the last couple of months and this was the right event to get me going again."

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With all due respect to the impressive list of players Stenson beat in Tucson - Zach Johnson, KJ Choi, Aaron Baddeley, Nick O'Hern, Trevor Immelman and Geoff Ogilvy - his opponent tomorrow is likely to be far tougher.

Ernie Els, the second seed and record six-time winner of the title, cruised to a six and five win over Argentina's Andres Romero.

The other semi-final is between Romero's fellow countryman Angel Cabrera, who overcame holder Casey four and three, and American Hunter Mahan, a six and four conqueror of Soren Hansen.

Stenson actually won twice in the day. His opening clash with Woody Austin was one of two carried over and, resuming on the final tee at 7.55am, he sank a 12-foot birdie putt to get the better of the American.

With an opportunity - like Els - to go top of the European Order of Merit this weekend, the Gothenburg golfer then raced round the West Course in an eight-under-par 64 to lead by four and had three birdie twos after lunch.

One of those lost the hole, though, when his opponent's six-iron hopped into the hole.

This is the competition where Isao Aoki won a house and Thomas Bjorn a car for aces, but there was no special prize on offer to the man who in May won his second PGA title on the course.

When the shot came, he was already eight down and two holes later the match was all over.