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Monday, February 24, 2014

Day, Dubuissson advance to finals at Match Play

By DOUG FERGUSON (AP Golf Writer)February 23, 2014 2:34 PMAP - Sports

Jason Day hits waves on the second hole in his match against Rickie Fowler during the fifth round of …

MARANA, Ariz. (AP) -- Jason Day of Australian and Victor Dubuisson of France reached the 18-hole final of the Match Play Championship on Sunday.

Day, a semifinalist last year, led from the start in a 3-and-2 victory over Rickie Fowler.

Dubuisson became the fourth player to reach the championship match in his debut in the 15 years after this World Golf Championship began in 1999. He had to take down Ernie Els in the most compelling match of the morning on Dove Mountain.

Els, trying to reach the final for the first time, went 3 up through four holes and was on the verge of stretching his lead until the 23-year-old Frenchman halved the hole with a tough par putt at No. 7. Dubuisson won four of the next five holes to take the lead, only for the 44-year-old Els to battle back.

Els made a 20-foot birdie putt on the 16th to square the match, and they headed to the 18th hole. Dubuisson hit to the back fringe, while Els came up short with a 6-iron into the breeze and found a bunker. He blasted out to just outside 12 feet, and narrowly missed the par putt to extend the match.

Dubuisson said he didn't sleep well Saturday night and didn't feel well when he arrived at the golf course, perhaps because ''I realized I was in the semifinal of the World Golf Championship against Ernie Els.''

''I'm a big fan of Ernie, so I have always been watching him winning majors,'' he said. ''I knew I had to play my best golf. It's what I did.''

Dubuisson is the first player since Geoff Ogilvy in 2006 to reach the final match in his first time playing this event. Ogilvy went on to win the title.

It was a big blow to Els, who badly pulled an 8-iron far left of the flag on the 17th, losing a chance to put pressure on Dubuisson, and then came up short on the 18th.

''It's tough to take,'' said the four-time major champion.

Day won the opening hole with a birdie and never looked back, though Fowler didn't give in.

Day was 3 up through 11 holes when he missed a 6-foot par putt on the 12th and Fowler made birdie on the 13th to cut the deficit to one hole. The turning point came at the 15th, when Fowler missed far enough left with his drive that he had no shot at getting close. He hit a flop shot strong that went over the green, hit another strong pitch and missed the par putt.

Fowler had a chance to go 1 down on the 16th with a tee shot into 6 feet. But he missed the birdie putt, and then missed the 4-footer coming back for par to end the match.

''The start of the season, that's all I'm trying to do is win,'' said Day, with only one PGA Tour victory in his career. ''I felt like I had a really good chance at maybe having a shot at winning this week and I'm definitely in the final now and I'm really looking for to it.''

Day to face Dubuisson in Match Play final

February 23, 2014 2:16 PM

Feb 23, 2014; Marana, AZ, USA; Jason Day with his approach shot on the 14th during the semifinal round …

(Reuters) - Australian Jason Day held off a late fightback by American Rickie Fowler to book his place in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship final with a 3&2 victory in a battle of the young guns at Dove Mountain on Sunday

On a crisp and clear morning in Arizona's high desert, Day sealed the win when fellow 25-year-old Fowler surprisingly three-putted from just five feet at the par-three 16th.

Day, who recorded six birdies in 16 holes to reach the final for the first time, will face Frenchman Victor Dubuisson in the title match later on Sunday at Dove Mountain's Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.

Dubuisson, who had never previously played matchplay golf until his debut this week in a World Golf Championships (WGC) event, came from three down after seven holes to beat veteran South African Ernie Els one up.

"It was a tough day," Day, who was beaten by eventual champion Matt Kuchar of the United States in last year's semi-finals, told Golf Channel.

"Rickie is playing great golf right now and I just thought if I gave that little bit of an inch for him to move in, he was going to knock the door down.

"So I was just trying to hang tough and my game was solid today. Hopefully I can take it into the final."

Day birdied four of the first eight holes to go three up before Fowler twice trimmed the lead to two, first with a concession at the ninth and again at the short 12th, where Day missed a seven-foot par putt.

The Australian also bogeyed the 13th for his advantage to be cut to one before getting back to two-up with a birdie at the driveable par-four 15th, where he chipped to three feet.

Fowler responded with a brilliant tee shot to five feet at the 16th but squandered the chance to level when he pushed his birdie attempt to the right of the cup, then missed the par putt coming back to lose the match.

EARLY ELS LEAD

In the second semi-final, four-times major winner Els raced into a three-up lead after just four holes against a slow-starting Dubuisson before the Frenchman got into his stride with birdies at the eighth and ninth to trail by one.

Dubuisson leveled the match with another birdie at the par-five 11th, where he chipped to within three feet, and went one ahead when his 44-year-old opponent bogeyed the 12th.

It looked likely that Els would get back to all square after he hit a stunning approach to a foot for a conceded birdie at the par-five 13th, but Dubuisson coolly matched him by sinking a clutch putt there from 18 feet.

However, the Frenchman stumbled at the par-four 14th where he failed to reach the green in two, executed a poor chip and ran his par putt well past the cup before conceding the hole.

Dubuisson got back to one up with a birdie at the 15th where his tee shot ended up just short of the green but Els immediately leveled when he stunningly drained a curling downhill birdie putt from 32 feet at the 16th.

Both players parred the 17th but the South African lost the match on the 18th green when he missed his par putt from 13 feet after the Frenchman had lagged his birdie putt to within two feet of the cup.

Dubuisson, who burst into the limelight by winning his maiden European Tour title at the Turkish Airlines Open in November, admitted he had been very nervous competing against one of his golfing idols.

"I didn't sleep very well last night, I slept like one hour, and this morning I woke up and I realized that I was playing against Ernie Els, one of my favorite players," the 23-year-old said.

"On the first tee. I shake the hand of Ernie and I wasn't feeling comfortable. I was watching him and I was very impressed to be next to him. I was thinking of all the matches he won and the (two British) Opens."

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Larry Fine)

Day outlasts Dubuisson for WGC Match Play crown

February 23, 2014 8:56 PM

Marana (United States) (AFP) - Australia's Jason Daywithstood the determined challenge of France's Victor Dubuisson to win the World Golf Championships Match Play crown with a birdie at the 23rd hole of the final.

Dubuisson had erased a three-hole deficit to extend the title match scheduled for 18 holes, and kept it going with two miraculous shots out of the desert cactus before Day finally sealed the win on Sunday.

Day, 26, never trailed in the match after taking the lead with a birdie at the opening hole. But that fact hardly reflected the drama of the latter stages, when Dubuisson birdied the 17th and got up and down for par from a bunker at 18 to square the match as Day bogeyed 18.

The 23-year-old from Cannes, who won his first European Tour title at the Turkish Open in November, was in serious trouble at the 19th hole, where his approach shot bounced into the desert scrub and nestled in a clump of cactus.

He stepped up and took an unceremonious swing at it, sticking it six feet from the pin and making the putt to stay alive.

He hacked out of the scrub again at the 20th hole en route to a par that matched Day's.

At the 23rd, Dove Mountain's drivable par-four 15th, Dubuisson ran out of steam.

His drive bounced into thick rough and his chip out ran almost 30 feet past the pin.

Day was in the first cut of rough and chipped out to three feet.

Dubuisson's long birdie attempt was short and his par conceded before Day rolled in his winning putt -- it was the first hole Day had won since the ninth.

Day captured his second US PGA Tour title and his first in an elite World Golf Championships event. This week's $9 million tournament started with 64 players on Wednesday and as the last man standing Day collected $1.53 million.

Dubuisson earned $906,000 for his runner-up finish in his first WGC event.

In the consolation match, Rickie Fowler needed 19 holes to beat four-time major champion Ernie Els and claim third place.

The long day in the Arizona desert started with the semi-finals, in which Dubuisson defeated his onetime idol Els 1 up and Day downed Fowler 3 and 2.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Johnson stuns Woods in World Challenge playoff

By Rebecca BryanDecember 8, 2013 8:35 PM

Thousand Oaks (United States) (AFP) - Zach Johnson salvaged a stunning par at the 72nd hole then edged world number one Tiger Woods at the first playoff hole to win the $3.5 million World Challenge on Sunday.

Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, denied the world number one a sixth victory in the unofficial tournament he hosts for the benefit of his charitable foundation.

After appearing to drown his chances by hitting his second shot into the water at the final hole of regulation -- what he called his worst shot of the week -- Johnson holed his shot from the drop area 65 yards out to make par and complete a four-under 68.

Woods came up with an impressive par save from a greenside bunker at the 72nd to cap a two-under 70 that left him tied with Johnson on 13-under 275.

But Woods couldn't salvage par from the same bunker in the playoff, his attempt lipping out.

"I hit a hell of a bunker shot and made par," he said of the final hole of regulation. "In extra holes I hit another really good bunker shot... to get it that close was, I thought, pretty good."

Woods said he'd been blocking putts all day, and was determined not to make that mistake.

"I just didn't want to block that one, and I didn't," he said. "I over-released it."

Johnson admitted that after the late dramatics, Woods' miss was an anti-climactic end to a tournament that drew a record crowd of 24,922 on Sunday to Sherwood Country Club in the rolling hills west of Los Angeles.

"It's not the way you want it to end," Johnson said. "I mean, you want to end the tournament with someone making a putt.

"You've got to take the good with the bad and somehow they even out, but you don't want to see it like that, especially when (Woods) hit a really good sand shot.

"You know, he played great," Johnson added of Woods. "He didn't make as many putts as I did. That's all it really was today."

Sherwood was hosting the tournament for the 14th time, but Woods announced last month the event will move to Isleworth in Florida next year.

Even if he couldn't give his Southern California fans the win most of them came to see, Woods thought it was an entertaining finale, with Johnson a deserving winner.

"Excluding that last shot on 18 in regulation, he really hit it well coming in with three good approach shots," Woods said.

"It was pretty exciting, as a player and I'm sure as a spectator. I think everyone was pretty entertained."

Woods started the day with a two-shot lead over Johnson and led by four after Johnson bogeyed the 10th.

Johnson bounced back with birdies at 11 and 12, and when Woods bogeyed 14 the lead was down to one.

After both birdied 16, Johnson birdied 17 to send them to the 18th tee tied for the lead.

Johnson was safely in the fairway as Woods was in the rough off the tee. From a difficult hillside lie the 14-time major champion found a bunker below the elevated green.

Johnson, however, then hit into the water. He could only laugh when his shot from the drop area took a couple of small hops and spun into the cup.

Americans Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar shared third place, four shots back on 279. Kuchar carded a 67 and Watson posted a final-round 70.

Former US Open champion Webb Simpson was alone in fifth place after a 68 for 281 and defending champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland carded a 69 for 283.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Day, Dubuissson advance to finals at Match Play

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Wednesday, January 1, 2014

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