The sheer lottery of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship was again front and center on Thursday, as top seeds Henrik Stenson, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose were eliminated in the second round.
Swede Stenson, seeded No. 1 this week, never led before going down four-and-three to South African Louis Oosthuizen, while fourth-seeded Northern Irishman McIlroy lost a see-sawing encounter with the US’ Harris English after 19 holes.
In the final match of the day at Dove Mountain, US Open champion and second seed Rose was pipped by Els after 20 closely contested holes, the big South African sealing victory with a magical birdie at the par-five second.
Former world No. 1 Els somehow struck his third shot from a near-impossible lie in a greenside bunker to within three feet of the flag, before Rose needed two strokes to escape the sand on the way to a losing par five on their 20th hole.
McIlroy, beaten by the US’ Hunter Mahan in the 2012 final, had clawed his way back from two down after 13 holes to edge one-up after 16 on another breezy day of dazzling sunshine in Arizona’s high desert.
However, English leveled the match with a birdie at the par-four 17th and sealed victory after his opponent made a compete hash of the 19th.
English is next to face Jim Furyk, the PGA Tour veteran having beaten former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa three-and-two.
Oosthuizen won three of the first four holes against a sub-par Stenson, the 2007 champion, and maintained control before ending the match with a birdie at the par-four 15th.
Rickie Fowler continued his giant-killing ways with a one-up win over in-form fellow American Jimmy Walker and is next to meet Spaniard Sergio Garcia, who beat good friend Bill Haas of the US three-and-one.
Fowler came from one down with three holes to play, sealing his second win of the week with a birdie on 16 followed by well-executed par saves on 17 and 18.
Garcia, who had battled past Australian Marc Leishman after 22 holes in his opening match, was two down after seven holes, but sparked his fightback with an eagle at the eighth before taking control with three birdies after the turn.
American Jordan Spieth, last year’s PGA Tour rookie of the year, was always in command against Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn before wrapping up a comfortable five-and-four victory.
In yesterday’s third round, Spieth was to take on defending champion Matt Kuchar, who scraped through a tight contest against fellow American Ryan Moore one-up.
Frenchman Victor Dubuisson never trailed on the way to a three-and-one win against Swede Peter Hanson and is next to face former Masters champion Bubba Watson, a two-up winner against Swede Jonas Blixt.
Australian Jason Day battled back from three down after 10 holes to scrape past the US’ Billy Horschel after 22 holes, while Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell rallied from two down after 14 holes to beat Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama one-up.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier