GOLF WGC MATCH PLAY:IAN POULTER recorded the biggest victory of his career when he beat fellow Briton Paul Casey 42 in the 36-hole WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship final last night.
Poulter led Casey by two at the halfway point – Poulter was four up after 14, but Casey, who was runner-up in the event to Australian Geoff Ogilvy last year, made a seven-foot birdie putt on the next and Poulter three-putted the last.
Casey made twos on both the 21st and 24th – he almost aced the second of those – but with Poulter making an eight-foot birdie at the 22nd and Casey taking three from the edge of the 25th the gap was back to four with 11 left.
Both birdied the par five 26th, but Casey got one back again when Poulter putted off the front of the next green and bogeyed.
It was game on again when Casey made a 14-footer on the 28th, but Poulter got up and down on the next two to preserve a two-up lead and he went on to close out his fellow Englishman on the 34th green.
Colombian Camilo Villegas took third place with a 54 victory over Spain’s Sergio Garcia.
It was not quite the end to the day Villegas was hoping for, though. The South American got up hoping to be facing Poulter in the final, but was beaten on the sixth extra hole when his semi-final against Casey – held over from Saturday because of darkness – resumed.
He led the consolation match from the moment Garcia double-bogeyed the first hole for the second match in a row.
Poulter and Casey were competing not just for the title and a difference in prize money of almost €256,661 – the winner’s cheque was €653,096 and the runner-up received €396,528 – but also the world number five spot.
Poulter, dressed in all pink, had the added incentive of trying for his first victory on American soil.
The semi-final between Casey and Villegas was halted after 23 holes on Saturday, but, on the resumption, Villegas snap-hooked his opening drive into the desert scrub and Casey, lucky to escape when his opponent missed from less than three feet on the green before, won with a par four.
Minutes later he was teeing off again and a conceded eagle on the long second, where he struck a 216-yard approach to eight feet, took him ahead.
However, Poulter birdied the next from seven feet and on the seventh he holed again from 12 feet and saw Casey miss from eight. After the 10th and 11th were exchanged, Casey found himself three down for the first time in the week when Poulter chipped to seven feet at the long 13th and a bogey on the next stretched the gap even more.
Losing another hole at that point would have turned a drama into a crisis for Casey but he got back into the match over the closing stretch of the morning round.
England now have three players in the world’s top six, with Westwood staying fourth despite his first-round exit.
A decade ago only Westwood was in the top 100.
WGC Match Play Championship, at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain, Arizona.
Final (36 holes)
Ian Poulter (Eng) bt Paul Casey (Eng) 4 and 2
Third place play-off (18 holes):
Sergio Garcia (Spa) lost to Camilo Villegas (Col) 5 4
How the finalists got there:
IAN POULTER
1st round – bt Justin Leonard at 19th
2nd round – bt Adam Scott 2 and 1
3rd round – bt Jeev Milkha Singh 5 and 4
Quarter-final – bt Thongchai Jaidee 1 hole
Semi-final – bt Sergio Garcia 7 and 6
PAUL CASEY
1st round – bt Stephen Ames 5 and 4
2nd round – bt Mike Weir 5 and 4
3rd round – bt Brian Gay 5 and 4
Quarter-final – bt Stewart Cink 5 and 4
Semi-final – bt Camilo Villegas at 24th
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