Ernie Els continued his amazing record in the HSBC World Match Play Championship with his 6th victory in the event. He beat Lee Westwood in the 36-hole final by 2&1, and in doing so eclipsed the record of five wins in the event previously held by himself, Seve Ballesteros and Gary Player.
Neither Els nor Westwood played their best golf in the final, but both players contributed to a tense and exciting match; such is the beauty of match play. Two down playing the 33rd hole, Westwood stiffed his approach shot to move within one of Els, but three-putt bogeyed the next to hand the advantage back to the South African. Els closed out the match in now typical fashion, holing a 15 footer to halve the 35th hole and take the match.
For the first in the event’s history, the losing semi-finalists did not play off for 3rd and 4th places. Instead, the players were separated by a bad haircut competition, Jiménez’s curly mullet narrowly beating Harrington’s dodgy bleach.
The match play format means that some impressive (and not so impressive) performances can often be overlooked. Approximate stroke play stats for the week highlight some interesting scoring (all matches over 36 holes):
1/8 1/4 1/2 Final Els (1) -5 -8 -8 -4 Drummond (16) -1 Cabrera (9) -4 -8 Choi (8) -6 Harrington (5) -6 -9 -2 Riley (12) -2 Levet (13) -7 -9 Weir (4) -4 Goosen (3) -10 -8 Maggert (14) +3 Westwood (11) -9 -11 -12 -4 Hamilton (6) -4 Jimenez (7) -8 -8 -11 Flesch (10) -3 Langer (15) -6 -8 Singh (2) -4
- Only one match all week was won by a player with an inferior stroke play score (KJ Choi vs. Angel Cabrera)
- After his record breaking 12&11 victory over Jeff Maggert (note the 13 stroke differential in that match), Retief Goosen played every one of the 35 holes of his quarter-final match against Lee Westwood in par or better, was -8 for these holes, but still lost.
- Miguel Angel Jiménez shot 68-65 in his loss to Lee Westwood
- Jiménez also shot a 63 (-9) for the first 18 holes of his match against Bernhard Langer, including three bogeys
- Another 63 was shot by Padraig Harrington in his quarter final match against Levet; 10 birdies, 1 bogey
- Jeff Maggert was the only player to end up over par in a given match (+3 after 25 holes)
- Ernie Els’ modest scoring highlights the fact that in match play, you have to beat the man, not the course.
- None of the four Americans reached the second round.