Henrik Stenson continues to fly the European Tour flag in Tucson, Arizona, after an impressive 3 and 2 semi-final victory over Trevor Immelman set up a mouth-watering final shoot-out to the World Golf Championships – Accenture Match Play against the defending champion Geoff Ogilvy.
Ogilvy, unbeaten in the event after winning on his debut at La Costa a year ago, brushed past Chad Campbell 3 and 2 to join the Swede in the final.
The last European to make the final was Stenson’s fellow Swede Pierre Fulke in 2001, when American Steve Stricker won the title, but Stenson will be looking to go one better as he closes in on a place in the World’s Top Five.
Currently eighth on the Official World Golf Ranking compared the 11th of his opponent in the final, Stenson has soared up the world in the last couple of years to join the game’s elite players. Victory in the Dubai Desert Classic earlier this month against a field that included Tiger Woods and Ernie Els further underlined his status and now the 31 year old Swede is poised to take another step up the ladder.
Having dodged a bullet in the morning quarter-final match against Nick O’Hern, where he came back from one down with two to play to win on the last despite needing a penalty drop from the cactus bush, Stenson looked totally in control of his semi-final tie against Immelman.
A birdie on the first got the ball rolling and was followed by four more in an outward half of 31 as he raced to turn three up. Immelman managed to get one back with a long birdie putt on the 12th but a dropped shot on the 15th effectively sealed his fate and Stenson duly won on the 16th.
“It was definitely an interesting day after coming off that first match with Nick which I didn’t win in a particularly ordinary way,” said Stenson. “Then it was run straight up, have some lunch and head out again. Fortunately I played well on the front nine and managed to make a few putts.”
Immelman may have lost at the semi-final stage but was rightly proud of his performance at the Gallery Golf Club.
“First of I hate losing, I know that much,” he admitted. “But I am proud of the way I played. This week affirmed that I love match play. I enjoy the head-to-head competition. I came into this week off a pretty poor finish last week and a poor last month or so but I kept grinding it out and ended up having a good week.”
Stenson is in no doubt that his next opponent, the reigning US Open Champion, will provide another stern test. “Every match is tough and it would be the same tomorrow no matter who I was going to play. But obviously playing Geoff who played really well last year and has gone through to the final again this year is going to be a tough one.”
It has been quite a time for Stenson of late both on and off the course with his victory in Dubai along with his marriage to Emma last December and the impending birth of their first child in July. “It’s not been bad I have to say,” smiled the Swede.
Ogilcy by contrast took a while to get going in his semi-final match and was one down to Campbell after six holes before a burst of six birdies in seven holes from the seventh transformed the match. A seventh birdie of the round on the 16th finished Campbell off and carried Ogilvy into the final.
“The big turn was on the seventh,” he said. “Chad hit a driver to 12 feet on the par four and I was short and left. I managed to get it up and down and he missed so we halved a hole I am sure he thought he was going to win. I won the next and after that felt I played pretty well. I holed a ridiculous putt on top of him at the 13th. That’s pretty unexpected and sure it annoyed the hell out of him. That’s what you have to do in match play. It kept the momentum on my side.”
Ogilvy too is looking forward to the final, hoping the local crowd will be on his side as the US Open Champion and the fact he lives in Arizona, but will not be underestimating his opponent.
“Henrik is one of the few guys to have beaten Tiger over four rounds at stroke play recently,” Ogilvy pointed out. “He hits it a long way. I know he hits it miles. He’s obviously pretty confident. He’s been beating good players and it should be fun.”
