McIlroy flies flag alone

Rory McIlroy’s rapid rise to prominence continued in Tucson when the Holywood teenager beat South African Louis Oosthuizen 2&1 in the first round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. He won’t, however, be joined by Graeme McDowell or Pádraig Harrington who both fell at the first hurdle.

McDowell was beaten 3&1 by Zach Johnson and though Harrington fought back against Pat Perez, he eventually lost by one on the 18th.

McIlroy’s win edges the Irishman, ranked 17th in the world, a little closer to a dream pairing with Tiger Woods.

Before that, though, he and Woods have some work to do. McIlroy must take on Hunter Mahan after the on US Ryder Cup player beat Mike Weir by just one shot.

After a 3&2 win over Brendan Jones on his long-awaited return from injury, Woods will face Tim Clark, who beat fellow South African Retief Goosen 4&2.

McIlroy admitted afterwards that the prospect of facing Woods was always going to be in the back of his mind but that, he says, is where it will have to stay.

“I can’t let myself think about too much, Tiger still has to play his second round match as well,” he said, before admitting it would “great” if it came to pass.

“It would be a chance to test myself against the best player in the world and see how I do.”

Lee Westwood got the European challenge off to a flying start. The Englishman, one of 20 Europeans and a record 47 European Tour members in the 64-man field, progressed with a bogey-free, five-birdie 2&1 win over Thailand’s Prayad Marksaeng.

Westwood, in the Ben Hogan bracket of the draw alongside top seed Vijay Singh and also including Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Luke Donald, McDowell and last year’s beaten finalist Stewart Cink, raced into a three-up lead after seven holes before the Thai won his first hole at the eighth.

Westwood lost again at the 15th but regained his two-hole lead at the next hole before sealing victory by halving the 17th.

“I did play well,” Westwood said. “I was five under par and could have been a little better than that but Prayad played well and hung in there all day and started to come back at me on the back nine.

“I hit a great shot into 16 which sort of closed the game out — an eight iron to 18 inches which put me two up with two to play and I managed to halve 17.”

Westwood now faces a second-round meeting with Cink after he beat Richard Sterne in 19 holes.

US Ryder Cup star Anthony Kim was the first player into the next round when he mopped up a resounding victory over Lin Wen-Tang, 7&5, needing just his second birdie of the round to complete the job as the Taiwanese golfer posted seven bogeys over 13 holes.

Camilo Villegas, playing in Woods’s quarter with McIlroy, was next into the clubhouse following a crushing 7&6 win over Rod Pampling and will meet Miguel Angel Jimenez after the Spaniard beat South Africa’s Rory Sabbatini 2&1.