GOLF VOLVO WORLD MATCHPLAY:GRAEME McDOWELL and Rory McIlroy got their Volvo World Matchplay campaigns off to winning starts at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, yesterday to give themselves a strong platform from which to advance to the knockout stages.
The opening day was more about quality over quantity with only eight matches played in this new round-robin format where the 24 players are split into eight pools of three players. The top two in each pool will advance to the last 16.
McIlroy was involved in arguably the highest quality match of the day against Retief Goosen. Littered with birdies, the match went the distance before the Holywood golfer chipped in from the edge of the 18th green for birdie to close out the narrow win.
McIlroy took the early lead with a birdie two at the second, but the South African responded with three birdies in four holes from the fourth to go two-up, before McIlroy levelled by the time they reached the turn.
The 22-year-old stole a march at a crucial time with birdies at 15 and 16 to be one-up and remained so by the time they stood on the 18th tee.
McIlroy’s decision to go for the par five 18th was questionable, and when he found the bunker right he was in danger of handing his opponent the chance of a halved match.
After splashing out from a difficult position he managed to reach the edge of the green. From there a deft pitch tracked to the hole and dropped to ensure the win. McIlroy made seven birdies against Goosen’s six.
In McDowell’s case he enjoyed a comfortable 3 and 1 win over British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen. It was the ideal response for McDowell after his final-round collapse at Sawgrass in Florida last weekend. The US Open champion fired out of the blocks, lost his way for a bit mid-round before closing strongly, particularly with the winning birdie at 17.
“Obviously there a lot of permutations with this week’s format but it’s nice to win against the British Open champion and get a first win under the belt. I felt like I positioned the ball well off the tee, hit a lot of good shots and putted okay. It was a nice little start.”
McDowell was also keen to put the final round at Sawgrass behind him and set about making sure the fatigue he felt doesn’t recur.
“I felt better out there today, did a little bit of work in the gym this week, trying to strengthen my legs up because I was disappointed the way I felt physically last Sunday,” added McDowell.
Elsewhere there were big 6 and 5 wins for world number one Lee Westwood and home favourite Miguel Angel Jimenez; they recorded respective wins over Anders Hansen and Charl Schwartzel.
Another home favourite, Alvaro Quiros, defeated former champion Paul Casey (3 and 1), Martin Kaymer overcame YE Yang (2 and 1) and Luke Donald was a comfortable winner over Ryan Moore (4 and 3).
The only halved matched was in the first game out between Francesco Molinari and Ian Poulter.
