Final four set for match play title
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland looks on from the tee box on the 16th hole during the quarterfinal round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. (Feb. 25, 2012) Credit: Getty Images
MARANA, Ariz. -- The glamour is one side of the draw, where Rory McIlroy will face Lee Westwood, with a place at the top of golf's world rankings a possibility for the winner. The national interest is on the other side, the American side.
The marathon called the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship has reached today's final two rounds at the Ritz-Carlton Club on Dove Mountain north of Tucson, semifinals in the morning, McIlroy against Westwood, and Hunter Mahan against Mark Wilson.
The final between the winners follows in the afternoon, a long day to end a long week that could elevate McIlroy, the 22-year-old Northern Irishman, to go where he's never been before, the top.
For sure it will involve an American for the first time since 2008, when Tiger Woods won.
"I always wanted to get to this position in the world,'' McIlroy said. "I always wanted to challenge for the biggest titles. And this, outside the majors, is one of the biggest ones.''
He already won a major, last year's U.S. Open at Congressional. Westwood, 38, the Englishman, hasn't done that, but he has twice been No. 1 in the world rankings and, as McIlroy, with a win in the tournament could be there again by nightfall.
In the quarterfinals Saturday, McIlroy defeated Sang-moon Bae of Korea, 3 and 2; Westwood beat Martin Laird, the Scot, 4 and 2; Wilson got past Peter Hanson of Sweden, 4 and 3; and Mahan smashed fellow American Matt Kuchar, who had the three-putt blues on the front, 6 and 5.
For Mahan, 29, a victory would be retribution of sorts. Two years ago, playing for the U.S. team at the Ryder Cup in Wales, Mahan 2-down to Graeme McDowell at the 17th hole and short of the green botched his chip and lost his match.
Europe would beat America, 141/2-131/2, and when questioned in the postmatch news conference, Mahan broke into tears, his teammates speaking out to protect him. Mahan's short-game weakness, a subject of conversation, became exposed. Now it is being corrected.
In Wilson, 37, Mahan goes against someone who said he used to be intimidated by the top names but now "feels more comfortable in my own shoes.''
Kuchar was very uncomfortable with his loss and also hearing TV commentator Nick Faldo belittle Matt's belly putter. "Just a good punch right in the back of Nick Faldo,'' Kuchar said, laughing, "is the only way I'd feel better now.''
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