Marana, AZ (Sports Network) - Defending champion Hunter Mahan cruised past
Martin Kaymer, 5 & 4, to advance to the quarterfinals at the World Golf
Championship - Accenture Match Play Championship.
Mahan, the sixth seed in the Gary Player Bracket, won five of seven on from
the 11th to the 17th as they started on the back nine. Mahan was 5-up on the
2011 runner-up before Kaymer birdied the second to get within 4-down, but
Mahan birdied the fourth at The Golf Club at Dove Mountain to regain his 5-up
lead and the match was over one hole later when they halved the fifth with
pars.
The reigning champ will take on U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, who held off
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 2-up. Simpson won the first with a birdie, then
they traded the fourth and fifth holes. Simpson took the sixth and seventh. He
birdied the 11th to go 4-up, but the Spaniard won the 12th, 14th and 17th to
inch within 1-down.
At the ninth, their last, Fernandez-Castano 3-putted for bogey and conceded
Simpson's par putt and the match.
The Bobby Jones Bracket will have Graeme McDowell facing Jason Day. McDowell
took down Shane Lowry, 3 & 2. Day handled Masters champ Bubba Watson, 4 & 3.
Lowry birdied the second to go 1-up, but McDowell won five of the next seven
holes to jump 4-up. After five straight halves, Lowry took the 15th with a
par. They both parred No. 16 to give McDowell the match.
Day, the 11th seed, never trailed against Watson. Day won the first, fourth
and sixth, while Watson took the second and seventh. The Australian birdied
the eighth and parred the ninth to make the turn with a 3-up lead. They traded
wins at 11 and 12, before Watson conceded the hole and the match at No. 15.
The Ben Hogan Bracket will have sixth-seeded Matt Kuchar facing ninth-seeded
Robert Garrigus in the quarters. After Kuchar and Nicolas Colsaerts traded
wins at one and two, Kuchar won back-to-back holes from the third and seventh
to go 4-up.
Colsaerts got one back at the ninth, but after five halves in a row, Kuchar
closed out the 4 & 3 win with a par on the 15th.
Garrigus led Fredrik Jacobson 3-up at the turn, but Jacobson won three in a
row from the 11th to square the match. Garrigus responded with three wins in
the next four holes to earn the 3 & 1 win.
Two former champions will face each other in the Sam Snead Bracket. Ian
Poulter, the 2010 champ, will take on 2001 winner Steve Stricker in the
quarterfinals. Their third-round matches both started on the back nine.
Poulter won three in a row from the 16th to go 3-up. He took the third with
a par and a birdie at the sixth gave Poulter the 5 & 3 victory.
Stricker, who is celebrating his 46th birthday, took down Scott Piercy in a
fierce match. Piercy took the lead three times, and all three times Stricker
rallied to square the match. Stricker birdied the eighth to even things up. At
the ninth, their last, Stricker ran home a 31-footer for birdie and the 1-up
victory.
NOTES: Every winner on the PGA Tour this year has been American, and there are
five Americans in the quarterfinals, but two -- Kuchar and Garrigus -- are
facing each other ... The matches in the Player and Snead Brackets started on
No. 10 as they tried to save time in order to get the third round and
quarterfinals both done on Saturday ... The start of the third round was
delayed 45 minutes by frost.
The Sports Network