Golf:Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy safely negotiated their way into the second round of the WGC-Accenture Matchplay but it was an early bath for Pádraig Harrington and Tiger Woods in the searing heat of the Tucson desert in Arizona.
McDowell finally found an oasis in the desert to make it into the second round for the first time since 2005. He defeated 37-year old Heath Slocum 4 and 3 with a display that earns the US Open champions a date with stablemate Ross Fisher today.
McDowell was unhappy with his warm-up session on the range and while he handed Slocum a one-up lead by overshooting the first green, it turned out to be a mere blip against an opponent who hadn’t played a matchplay encounter since the 1995 US Amateur Public Links.
“I feel like I played well myself and he didn’t play his best and make me play,” said McDowell. “I could fire to the correct side of pins and win a few holes with pars, which is always nice.
“I hit it well off the tee, hit a few decent iron shots and holed a few nice putts. But every match is tough and I have got to prepare myself to play one of my good friends in Ross Fisher.
“He is a great match player and has a good record in this tournament so I will have to play well to beat him.”
McDowell has been forced to pack his clubs back into their flight bag on the opening day for the past two years but he could begin thinking about a second round clash with Fisher, a 4 and 3 winner over Australia’s Robert Allenby.
McIlroy faced a tough opponent in another American, Jonathan Byrd, who has won twice on the PGA Tour in recent months, but he came through with a 4 and 2 win. After halves in birdie at the second and bogey at the third, the Holywood golfer moved into the lead when he hit a 323-yard drive to the edge of the fourth green and chipped in for an eagle two.
Pointing to his eagle as the turning point, McIlroy said: “I got off to a shaky start and missed a couple of greens but the two on four sort of settled me down and I never looked back after that.”
While Byrd got back to level after seven, he three-putted the ninth to leave McIlroy one up at the turn and then lost the 11th to a birdie four and the 15th and 16th to pars.
Harrington never got to grips with two-time champion Geoff Ogilvy and eventually lost 4 and 3 to the Australian.
As for Woods, he lost on the first extra hole to the in-form Dane Thomas Bjorn. With the longest barren spell of his career now stretching to 18 events, Woods joined defending champion Ian Poulter in crashing out of the tournament in sudden death.
Poulter lost to Stewart Cink and had a few choice words regarding his performance afterwards.
“Am I disappointed? I am f***ing pissed,” Poulter said after losing on the 19th, having been two up with four to play. “Does that help? I am pissed at myself for not doing my job today. I had my chances to shut him out and didn’t.”
Woods led by one with six to play, but Bjorn then birdied the 13th and 15th. The former world number one, whose last victory was 15 months ago in Australia, levelled with a nine-foot birdie putt on the last, but could not recover from a wild drive when they went into overtime.
So Bjorn, only 134th on the rankings before he won the Qatar Masters earlier this month, claimed the scalp of the player whose only previous first round loss was nine years ago to Australian Peter O’Malley.
“He’s not playing his absolute best, but there were a lot of good swings there,” said Bjorn. “He’s taking strides. There’s a way back for him and he’ll get there.”
Collated results after the first round of the WGC – Accenture Matchplay
at the Ritz-Carlton GC, Dove Mountain, Arizona, US
(USA unless stated, Irish in
bold):
Ian Poulter (Eng) lost to Stewart Cink at the 19th
Y.E. Yang (Kor) bt Alvaro Quiros (Spa) at the 20th
Ernie Els (Rsa) bt Jeff Overton at the 19th
J.B. Holmes bt Camilo Villegas (Col) 4 and 2
Luke Donald (Eng) bt Charley Hoffman 6 and 5
Edoardo Molinari (Ita) bt Martin Laird (Sco) 3 and 2
Jim Furyk lost to Ryan Palmer 2 down
Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) bt Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 2 and 1
Graeme McDowell (NIrl)bt Heath Slocum 4 and 3
Robert Allenby (Aus) lost to Ross Fisher (Eng) 4 & 3
Paul Casey (Eng) bt Richard Green (Aus) at the 19th
Kyung-tae Kim (Kor) lost to Jason Day (Aus) 3 and 2
Steve Stricker lost to Matteo Manassero (Ita) 2 and 1
Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) bt Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) at the 20th
Rory McIlroy (NIrl)bt Jonathan Byrd 4 and 2
Adam Scott (Aus) lost to Ben Crane 4 and 2
Matt Kuchar bt Anders Hansen (Den) at the 22nd
Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) lost to Bo Van Pelt 2 down
Dustin Johnson lost to Mark Wilson at the 19th
Bubba Watson bt Bill Haas 3 and 2
Retief Goosen (Rsa) lost to K J Choi (Kor) 1 down
Francesco Molinari (Ita) lost to Ryan Moore 3 and 1
Robert Karlsson (Swe) bt Hiroyuki Fujita (Jpn) 5 and 3
Hunter Mahan bt Sean O'Hair 4 and 3
Phil Mickelson bt Brendan Jones (Aus) 6 and 5
Rickie Fowler bt Peter Hanson (Swe) 1 up
Tiger Woods lost to Thomas Bjorn (Den) at the 19th
Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) bt
Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 4 and 3
Lee Westwood (Eng) bt Henrik Stenson (Swe) 3 and 2
Nick Watney bt Anthony Kim 5 and 4
Martin Kaymer (Ger) bt Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 7 and 6
Zach Johnson lost to Justin Rose (Eng) 2 and 1
