World number one Tiger Woods scraped past Australia's Aaron Baddeley after 20 exhilarating holes to avoid making a third-round exit at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship for a third year-in-a-row.
The top seed, and champion at La Costa in 2003 and 2004, fought
back from one down with three holes to play before rolling in a
13-foot birdie putt to seal victory at the par-four second, the
second extra hole.
Woods had charged two up with birdies on the first two holes
before his opponent piled on the pressure with six birdies in seven
holes around the turn at Dove Mountain's Gallery Golf Club.
Baddeley, 26, took the lead for the first time by rolling in
a 10-footer on the 14th green but Woods levelled a tight match
after hitting his tee shot to two feet at the par-three 16th.
"You had to stay in it by making birdies," Woods said in a
greenside television interview after reeling off 12 birdies in a
battle of high quality. "Matches like that are fun to be a part
of."
US Open champion Angel Cabrera reeled off three consecutive
birdies from the seventh to beat American Steve Stricker 4 and 3.
The big-hitting Argentine had not reached the third round in
any of his six previous appearances in the elite World Golf
Championships (WGC) event.
"I played very, very well, especially on the front nine, and
that's what made the difference," Cabrera told reporters after
booking a place in today's quarter-finals against American Stewart
Cink.
US Ryder Cup player Cink used a red-hot putter to end Colin
Montgomerie's impressive run 4 and 2 and Woody Austin, helped by
four birdies in the first nine holes, knocked out fellow American
Boo Weekley 3 and 2.
"I didn't really feel like I had control of my golf ball off
the tee today, it was ugly," Cink said. "But I scrambled my rear
end off and I made a bunch of putts."
Defending champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden, who scraped
through a 25-hole marathon with South African Trevor Immelman in
the previous round, edged a tight encounter with American Jonathan
Byrd one up.
"I'm just happy with the way I played today," Stenson said.
"My legs were a little bit tired yesterday but I felt okay this
morning. I had some good sleep."
In other matches, South Korea's K.J. Choi squeezed past
England's Paul Casey one up and American Justin Leonard beat
Australia's Stuart Appleby 3 and 2.
Fiji's Vijay Singh was one down to Australian Rod Pampling,
after 17 holes in the only match still out on the course.
