Rory McIlroy, number 1 in the world ranking, has won the WGC-Cadillac Match Play, held at the TPC Harding Park, in San Francisco (California, USA), by beating the American Gary Woodland (52), by 4 and 2 in a marathon day for the champion. His triumph has been rewarded with 1.57 million dollars of the 9 million dollars that this tournament of the World Series distributed in prizes.
The Northern Irish player, who with this victory takes away the thorn of his defeat in the final of the same tournament in 2012 against Hunter Mahan, played on Sunday the quarterfinal playoff against Englishman Paul Casey (37) postponed due to lack of light; the semifinal against American Furyk and the final with Woodland.
The first stage was overcome in the first hole played on his last day: the 22nd, a par 5 that was resolved in four strokes by five Casey; the second, the semifinal against Furyk, fifth in the world, was elucidated in a very exciting 18th hole, after a very even round, and in which McIlroy can also be said to have won half a final.
At that hole, a par 5, both came evenly matched Furyk, who entered the green with three strokes, made a birdie from a distance of 25 feet, but McIlroy, who is motivated by pressure, entered with the second impact on the shaved grass and from 43 feet scored an eagle on his card that earned him the pass to the final.
Against Woodland, McIlroy played almost his most comfortable match of the championship and, after a similar start – both had a birdie and two bogeys in the first three holes – the world No. 1 took the lead on the fourth by one stroke over Woodland.
In the match for third and fourth place, the American Jim Furyk and the Englishman Danny Willet (49) competed for the third place that finally went to the latter, who faced the match with more ambition than the American, whose mind was still on that 18th hole where he had lost all his chances of winning this tournament that has given the winner, in addition to 1,570,000 dollars, 550 FedExCup points.
Incident between Jimenez and Bradley
Apart from the competition itself, there was a circumstance that moved rivers of ink in the tournament: the incident between Miguel Angel Jimenez and the American Keegan Bradley on Friday. A controversial drop by the American on the 18th hole, which was questioned by Jimenez (he interpreted that the distance of two clubs had not been respected), ended in a fight that is rarely seen in golf.
But Bradley’s caddie, Steve Hale, who exchanged words with the Spaniard and should not have done so (even though sometimes they know more about the rules than the players themselves), since the player is the one who actually plays and the caddie is an assistant without direct intervention, also got into the discussion. It was at that moment when the champion of the 2011 PGA Championship told Jimenez not to tell his caddie to shut up, which led to a different discussion, with an obvious threatening tone from the American, who came to stand less than an inch away from the face of the Spaniard while raising his voice and gesturing with his arms.
The referee eventually ruled in favor of Jimenez and the drop had to be replayed. Jimenez finished the match beating Bradley by two up to leave his final record at 1-2 at TPC Harding Park. But Bradley, who finished his performance in San Francisco with a meager 0-3 record, retired upset over the drop incident.
Leave a Reply