Ireland’s Paul McGinley, the last man into the HSBC World Match Play Championship, staked his claim to be last man standing on Sunday afternoon after converting an early deficit against Thomas Björn into a dramatic 6 and 5 first round victory at Wentworth Club.
The 38 year old Ryder Cup player was one down against the Dane at lunch, but won seven out of eight holes from the fifth in the afternoon round to win his first match at the first time of trying. He now faces fellow Ryder Cup player, Luke Donald of England, who showed the 2004 European Captain, Bernhard Langer, no mercy with a 7 and 6 success.
There are seven different nationalities remaining in the last eight of the tournament after a day of outstanding match play, which saw Number One seed, Retief Goosen of South Africa, defeat England’s Kenneth Ferrie by 8 and 7 and Number Two seed, Argentina’s Angel Cabrera, edge out Trevor Immelman of South Africa on the 17th.
Goosen’s next opponent will be Australian Mark Hensby, the recent winner of the Scandinavian Masters by Carlsberg, who outstayed the 1999 champion, Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, by 2 and 1 after a thrilling encounter.
Steve Elkington, the 1995 US PGA Champion, who beat South African Tim clark by 6 and 5, faces US Open Champion Michael Campbell of New Zealand, who needed to hole a teasing five footer at the last to end the resistance of another Australian in Geoff Ogilvie.
In the bottom half of the draw, Donald and McGinley cross swords in the third quarter-final with Cabrera tackling one of golf’s greatest match players in Spaniard José Maria Olazábal, who hit one of the shots of the day – a full blooded five wood at the 36th hole – and holed the resulting five foot eagle putt to frustrate England’s David Howell.
Another contender for the top shot of the day was a delightful 85 yard lob wedge from McGinley, which spun back into the hole for an eagle two at the 11th and effectively sealed Björn’s fate.
McGinley admitted; “That was important at that stage of the match. Thomas had just hit it in close and had given himself a good chance of a birdie. The last thing I wanted to do was to hand him a hole and was making sure I hit it as close as I could.”
The Irishman did just that, holing his approach to go five up, a position from which Björn, the 2003 runner-up, could not recover. He said: “I had to play well in the BMW International in Munich to get into this event. I was last man in and it would be nice to be last man standing.
“But everyone in this field is a very good player and I am not getting ahead of myself. I know I’m going to have to play equally well to beat Luke. I’ll go and have some rest and get ready for another tough match tomorrow.”
Goosen, who has still to win the HSBC World Match Play or the BMW Championship over the West Course, despite a superb pedigree, may be the obvious favourite but the South African doesn’t agree.
“I don’t see myself that way” he said. “Guys like Cabrera who have done well round here are more the sort of guys you should be worried about.”
Hensby, who learned a lot about the West Course due to the experience and diligence of his caddie, Fanny Suneson, who had trekked her way around the Wentworth Estate countless times while carrying Nick Faldo’s bag.
The Australian, who performed brilliantly in the Masters Tournament and the US Open Championship earlier this year, knew the scale of the task facing him when he attended the welcome dinner earlier this week.
“When I went to the dinner, I saw his name of every board” said Hensby. “I said down and said to Fanny: ‘Does he like this course’ and she replied: ‘Oh, yeah, we’re going to have a hard match.’”
So it proved, with Montgomerie moving effortlessly into a three hole lead at lunch thanks to an eagle-birdie burst to complete the morning session. However Hensby took advantage of three Montgomerie bogeys in the first five holes and birdied the 34th and 35th to close out a 2 and 1 victory.
Donald treated the man who picked him as a Ryder Cup wild card last year - Langer - with a certain amount of cruelty, winning 7 and 6 while Olazábal was equally hurtful with his swashbuckling eagle at the last to beat the dogged Howell.
He admitted: “I don’t know where that five wood came from – right out of the blue. It was a great shot and it saved the day, but I need to improve my driving tomorrow. This is one tournament I would like on my record but I have to be realistic. The tee shots are costing me.”
Now he faces the BMW Championship winner in Cabrera and he said with a playful smile: “I am going to need binoculars to see where the ball goes. Angel hits it a long, long way!”
