Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson brought a familiar story line Saturday to the Match Play Championship.
Woods won his 10th consecutive match as he tries to defend his title, building a 4-up lead on Padraig Harrington and holding it together long enough to advance to the semifinals.
Mickelson, playing as well as anyone at La Costa Resort, was poised to join him when he swung for the fences and wound up in the trees in a thrilling match against Davis Love III.
Mickelson tried to reach the par-5 18th hole in two, but pulled his approach 50 yards right of the flag, hit a flop shot that ricocheted through the trees and wound up making bogey. Love won with a par.
"I figured a good 3-wood would get by ball on the green," Mickelson said. "I pull-hooked it."
Darren Clarke, who beat Woods in the 36-hole final four years ago, easily defeated Jerry Kelly, while Stephen Leaney of Australia held on to beat Ian Poulter of England, 1 up.
"We both didn't play to our standards," Woods said after Harrington took him to 17 holes.
Next up for Woods is Leaney, whom he beat 7 and 6 last year in the third round.
Love, in the semifinals for the first time since 2000, played Clarke.
Woods' record improved to 18-3 in the Accenture Match Play Championship, an impressive mark given the fickle nature of these 18-hole matches. For the third straight match, he never trailed.
The best match of morning was Love and Mickelson, and it was evident early on when they halved only one of the first eight holes.
Love built a 2-up lead, only to see Mickelson birdie the next three holes to grab the lead. Back and forth they went, with Love catching up and taking the lead, and Lefty answering with timely birdies.
Mickelson holed an 8-foot birdie on the 17th to square the match, and appeared to have the advantage when Love drove into the rough on the closing hole.
Mickelson, known for his aggressive style, had the 3-wood in his hand the whole time. He had enough length to reach the green, but his ball landed in a miserable spot -- with a pine tree blocking the pin, and a bunker keeping him from going under the branches.
A flop shot was his only option, but the ball came out soft and caught the branches.
"I thought the ground was firmer, but it was soft and the club got underneath it," Mickelson said.
From there, he chipped through the green, and after conceding a par putt to Love, Mickelson's putt to extend the match never had a chance.
Woods took the lead only after he got into trouble.
He sprayed his tee shot into thick rough to the right, and could only advance it 130 yards. Harrington had a chance to reach the green in two on the par 5, but came up short in deep rough. Woods' third shot stopped 12 feet from the cup, while the Irishman could only hack out to the fringe, and Woods went 1 up by making the putt.
Harrington was trying to play a fade off the fourth tee, but his ball smacked into a tree just 40 yards from the tee box and dropped straight down.
"I didn't even know there was a tree there," Woods later said.
But every time the match appeared to get away from Harrington, he managed to hang on. He holed an 8-foot par putt to win the fifth and was poised to square the match when Woods holed a momentum-saving par putt from 6 feet.
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