This week’s PGA Tour stop is the WGC-Dell Match Play. We look back at 10 of the event’s most memorable moments.
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This week’s PGA Tour stop is the WGC-Dell Match Play. We look back at 10 of the event’s most memorable moments.
It’s not often that you hear about a golf tournament being snow-delayed, but that’s what happened in 2013 at Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona. Almost 2 inches of snow wreaked havoc with first-round play on Wednesday, with none of the matches completed and 10 not even able to begin. It snowed again that night, causing another delay on Thursday. Eventually the tournament was completed, with Matt Kuchar, who had gone 4 up after nine holes, defeating defending champion Hunter Mahan, 2 up.
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Nick O’Hern has never won a major, never won a PGA Tour event, for that matter. But the Australian lefthander does hold one unique distinction: He has twice eliminated Tiger Woods from the World Match Play Championship. In 2005 O’Hern took out Woods in the second round, 3 and 1, and in 2007 he did it again, winning on the 20th hole of their third-round match. This loss ended Woods’ streak of seven consecutive PGA Tour victories.
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The 2016 edition got a dream match-up. It just came in the semifinals. Second-seeded Jason Day defeated third-seeded Rory McIlroy, 1 up, in thrilling fashion. Day went on to win the event with a 5-and-4 victory in the finals over Louis Oosthuizen.
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The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship marked the return of Tiger Woods to the PGA Tour after he underwent reconstructive knee surgery following his win in the 2008 U.S. Open. Seeded No.1 in his bracket, Woods dispatched Australian Brendan Jones, 3 and 2 in the first round, but then fell to South Africa’s Tim Clark, 4 and 2, in the second. “I felt like I hit one bad 8-iron and one bad drive in two days,” Woods said after being eliminated. “I was very pleased with the way I hit it today but I just didn’t make enough birdies.”
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After failing to win the title in his first three Match Play appearances, Woods became the first – and thus far, only - player to successfully defend his crown. Woods was extended to the 18th hole only once – by John Rollins in the first round – before defeating Davis Love III, 3 and 2, in the 36-hole final.
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For a meaningless match (neither player was going to advance out of the round-robin stage) Keegan Bradley vs. Miguel Angel Jimenez in the WGC-Cadillac Match Play certainly brought the heat. On the 18th hole, Bradley – with the aid of a rules official - was taking relief from a temporary immovable obstruction when Jimenez walked over and objected to the ruling. When Bradley’s caddie, Steve “Pepsi” Hale said something, Jimenez told him, “Shut up.” “You don’t tell me to shut up,” Hale retorted, and Bradley chimed in with “You don’t tell my caddie to shut up.” According to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, the fireworks continued in the locker room.
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On his way to the Match Play Championship final for the second time in three years, Davis Love III ended his quarterfinal match against Padraig Harrington in spectacular fashion – by holing out for eagle from 111 yards on the 18th hole. Love then eliminated Zach Johnson, 4 and 2, before falling to Geoff Ogilvy, 3 and 2 in the final.
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Even though Tiger Woods had been ranked No. 1 for most of the World Golf Championships era, he had never won the Match Play. He had lost in the fourth round to Jeff Maggert in 1999,in the final to Darren Clarke in 2000 and – shockingly – in the first round to Peter O’Malley in 2002. Like several of the world’s top players, he skipped the tournament when it was held in Australia in 2001. But in 2003 it finally all came together for Woods in the Match Play. He easily made it to the semifinals, but needed 19 holes to dispatch Adam Scott. In the final he topped David Toms, 2 and 1.
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Victor Dubuisson lost to Jason Day in the final, but the lasting image of their match is a pair of incredible escape shots by the Frenchman on the first two extra holes. Stymied behind a cactus, Dubuisson hacked the ball out to 4 feet, then made the putt for a halve on the 19th hole. On the 20th, he had a similar seemingly impossible lie in a bush. He hacked the ball out again, this time to 8 feet, from where he made the putt again. Day, meanwhile, could only shake his head and laugh. He eventually had the last laugh, winning on the 23rd hole.
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It was the No. 1 seed vs. No. 64 in the first round. But Stephen Ames, the aforementioned No. 64, wasn’t going to just concede defeat. “Anything can happen, especially where he’s hitting the ball,” Ames said. Woods went out and laid a record 9-and-8 whoopin’ on Ames, birdieing the first six holes, winning every hole on the front nine and closing out the match on No. 10. So, Tiger, what was your reaction to Ames’ quote? “Nine and eight.”
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