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Woods outplays Stenson to make match play final

Tiger Woods sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole on Saturday and beat defending champion Henrik Stenson to reach the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play Championship final.

World No. 1 Woods was to face fellow American Stewart Cink, who beat Justin Leonard 4 and 2 in Satuday's other semi-final, in yesterday's 36-hole title showdown at the US$8 million event.

Woods seeks his fourth US PGA triumph in a row and sixth worldwide victory in as many events. Woods won his PGA opener last month at Torrey Pines, the site of June's US Open, and captured a triumph in Dubai three weeks ago.

Stenson and Woods staged a tense fight down the back nine and while the Swedish standout never led the match, he won the 16th with an eight-foot birdie to square the match, setting the stage for Woods' clutch putt at the penultimate hole.

"It was a nice putt to make," Woods said. "I gave myself a shot at it. Henrik made his, and I just knew I had a chance to see if I can make it. That's why we practice as hard as we do, to put yourself in that position and make it."

Stenson was short of the green at the 18th with Woods on in two, and when his third shot began rolling back to him, Stenson scooped it up with his club and surrendered the hole and the match to Woods.

Woods seeks his third WGC Match Play title and his 15th victory in 26 WGC events. He also snapped Stenson's event match win streak at 10, three shy of the record owned by Woods as the only back-to-back champion.

Woods won the third hole with a par but Stenson sank a six-foot birdie putt at the par-4 seventh hole to square the match, then dropped an eight-footer to halve the eighth after Woods had made a 10-foot birdie putt.

Woods began the back nine with a birdie to regain a 1-up lead and sank a 10-foot birdie at the 12th with Stenson inches from the cup to halve that hole.

Cink opened with five birdies and an eagle in the first eight holes on his way to a 4-up lead, then held on over the final holes.

All square through three, Cink won the fourth and fifth holes with birdies and missed a five-foot birdie putt at the sixth that would have extended the edge.

Cink eagled the par-4 seventh and birdied the par-3 eighth to stretch his margin to 4-up and kept that margin until Leonard won his first hole of the match with a par at the 15th to pull 3-down with three to play.

But Leonard missed a 40-foot birdie putt at the 16th and surrendered the hole and the match to Cink.

"It feels great just to get this far. I've never gotten this far before. It's a blast," Cink said. "I started so hot, physically I was running out of gas and mentally a started thinking ahead a little bit."
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