Tucson (Arizona), Feb 19 (Inditop.com) Jeev Milkha Singh’s good run came to an end as Ian Poulter played flawless golf to outplay him five and four in the third round of the WGC-Accenture World Matchplay golf championships here.
Jeev, who beat Padraig Harrington and Matt Kuchar in the first two rounds, lost to Poulter Friday after failing to hole putts the way he did on the first two days.
“Yeah, I am disappointed. I left a few shots up there. But he played 5, 6-under for 14 holes and I didn’t hole the putts. I made too many mistakes there,” said Jeev. On being unable to make a comeback after being two-down he said: “It wasn’t my day today.”
Poulter was quite excited about the win. He said: “It was nice today. I played Jeev in the first round last year, and Jeev is a tough player. He’s got a good short game. He putts very well and I knew today wasn’t going to be easy.
“But I got off to a great start and made a couple of birdies. And I pretty much kept my foot down the whole way around the course. I kept hitting good shots into the greens and didn’t really give Jeev much chance to kind of get his birdie in first. So he missed a few chances out there, and I just kept my foot down and played good golf.”
Apart from Poulter, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia and Oliver Wilson held up the European challenge in the quarter-finals as seven European Tour Members reached the last eight.
Last year’s runner-up Casey, seeded sixth and the highest-ranked player left in the tournament, has still to go beyond the 14th hole after making American Brian Gay his third 5 and 4 victim.
Casey next plays Open Championship winner Stewart Cink, second and third the last two years, while Poulter is up against Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee.
The other quarter-final sees Retief Goosen, who defeated Nick Watney one up, play Camilo Villegas – the Colombian proving too strong for Ben Crane.
Poulter, with a chance to go to a career high fifth in the world by reaching Sunday’s 36-hole final, was the only other top ten seed to survive the first two days.
An 11-foot birdie putt was the perfect start, but once again it was the middle section of the round that settled things. Poulter went two up with a 15 footer on the fifth, Singh bogeyed the eighth and tenth and then could not match Poulter’s birdie on the long next.
Garcia beat another South African Tim Clark, while Thongchai Jaidee completed a fantastic showing by The European Tour Members with a 5 and 4 win over Ryo Ishikawa to set up a showdown with Poulter.
Retief Goosen and Villegas meet each other in the last eight, Goosen surviving when Watney was in two bunkers at the last and missed a six foot par putt.
rounak