Jose Maria Olazabal suffered a bitterly disappointing quarter-final defeat to Brad Faxon in the Accenture world match play championship in California today.
Olazabal, one down with one to play, rolled in a nine-foot putt on the last to stay alive but then lost at the 20th when Faxon made a 20-footer.
It left an all-American line-up in the semi-finals and an unlikely quartet indeed at the start of the week, 47th seed Faxon against 62nd seed Kevin Sutherland, 25th seed Paul Azinger against number 45 Scott McCarron.
Faxon had not been behind in any of his first three matches against Kenny Perry, Adam Scott and John Cook and had lost only four holes in them.
But he bogeyed the first and third and in between Olazabal splashed out of a greenside bunker to six feet for a winning birdie.
The pendulum started swinging, however, when Faxon holed from 40 feet on the fifth and Faxon then birdied the eighth as well.
Olazabal had lost a five-hole lead against Retief Goosen before winning with a closing 18-foot birdie putt and had gone to the last as well in his other two games with Justin Leonard and Mark Calcavecchia.
Both were bunkered in two at the long ninth and the hole was shared in birdie fours to give Olazabal an outward 34, two under par, to Faxon's 35.
They were back level at the short 14th, Olazabal coming out of sand to six feet and after thinking he had saved a half he saw the ball turn left at the last second, catch the lip and stay out.
Then Faxon grabbed the lead for the first time when Olazabal missed from five feet after his opponent had holed from slightly further away.
The Spaniard, winner on the US Tour two weeks ago and with a chance to lead both the American and European money lists tomorrow night, missed a 14-foot chance to level at the long 17th and after his superb putt at the last he missed a 15-foot chance on the first extra hole, but then watched as Faxon underlined his reputation as America's best putter.
McCarron, conqueror of both Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia, remarkably won five holes in a row after turning two down to Tom Lehman.
The turning point was Lehman's second to the 450-yard 10th, which almost did a bouncing bomb trick across the lake short of the green.
With it failing to make it back onto dry land, however, McCarron was able to win the hole with a par four, then birdied the next three holes to go two-up.
That became three when Lehman, his flawless outward 33 now a distant memory, completely duffed a chip on the short 14th and lost that to another par.
McCarron finished his man off clinically, holing a 12-foot putt for another birdie on the next for a four and three success.
Azinger beat Bob Estes two and one and Sutherland knocked out number six seed David Toms three and two.
Azinger and Estes both had two birdies on the front nine before Azinger took the lead for the first time with another at the long 12th.
Estes answered that one, but Azinger made a downhill 12-footer on the 15th and at the 17th, after Estes had missed from eight, he holed from five to go through.
Sutherland's week began with a victory over world number three David Duval and he has not looked back since.
He immediately took control against Toms with birdies at the second and third and after turning one-down Toms bogeyed the 10th and could not match Sutherland's two at the next.
The US PGA champion did win the 13th with a birdie of his own, but two holes later he clipped a tree on his backswing playing his second shot and semi-shanked into the crowd. -PA