One by one, the biggest names headed for the airport Thursday until Tiger Woods was the only player among the top eight seeds remaining at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz.
Phil Mickelson had designs on a comeback until Justin Rose scrambled backward out of the desert and made a 30-foot par putt to halve the 15th hole, leaving Mickelson looking like a batter frozen by a 3-2 curve that dropped over the plate.
Jim Furyk backed off a 7-foot birdie putt three times and still went wide left, losing on the 19th hole to Chad Campbell. Vijay Singh celebrated his 44th birthday with birdies on his last two holes to extend his match, then missed a 6-foot birdie on the 19th hole and lost to Stephen Ames.
Woods had an easy time against Tim Clark.
And suddenly, his path to an eighth straight PGA Tour victory looks a whole lot easier.
“I played better than I did (Wednesday), which is great,” Woods said after making birdie on half of his holes in a 5-and-4 win. “Do a little bit of practice this afternoon and solidify some things, and tomorrow, hopefully, I can play even better.”
Next up is Nick O’Hern, a short but straight-hitting Australian who beat Woods in the second round two years ago at La Costa. Still on Woods’ side of the bracket is Henrik Stenson, who won in Dubai this month when Woods finished two shots behind. Another winner was Trevor Immelman, the last player to win a PGA Tour event Woods played – the Western Open in July.
And as well as Woods has played for two rounds – he is one of five players who has never trailed this week – there’s always tomorrow.
“I’ve never played a match- play event where all six rounds I’ve played great golf,” he said. “You’re going to have one or two rounds where you’re not going to play well. You’ve just got to get through those matches. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t.”
Mickelson didn’t.
His West Coast Swing ended in a 3-and-1 loss that featured a dramatic shift in momentum. Rose was 1-up when he pulled his tee shot into the desert brush and had no choice but to pitch out backward, and had to hit his third shot to the green before Mickelson hit his second. And when Mickelson two-putted for par, he figured the match would be all square.
Rose’s putt dropped on the final turn, and everything changed.
“It looked like all I had to do was make par and the match would be even,” Mickelson said. “That hurt the most.”
Fred Funk birdied five of his first seven holes and finished with an 8-under-par 62 for a two-stroke lead over Cameron Beckman, George McNeill, John Merrick and Boo Weekley after the first round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.
LPGA: Angela Park shot a 6-under 66 in windy conditions for a share of the first-round lead with Stacy Prammanasudh in the Fields Open in Kapolei, Hawaii.
“Everything I looked at went in,” said Park, an 18-year-old rookie making her fourth LPGA Tour start. “I was so confident (and) very comfortable on the greens.”
Se Ri Pak made a late move to open with a 67. Meaghan Francella survived a triple bogey and was at 68, along with Kyeong Bae. Karrie Webb opened with a 70, while Paula Creamer had a 72.
Results, standings11D
