Saturday, February 28, 2009

Casey storms to Match Play final

Paul Casey
Casey has led 81 of the 82 holes he has played this week

Paul Casey has become the first Englishman to reach the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship after victory over Ross Fisher.

Casey will face 2006 winner Geoff Ogilvy in the final after the Australian beat Stewart Cink 4&2.

In the all-English semi-final Casey led Fisher all the way but did not wrap up the win until a birdie at 17.

Casey and Ogilvy will play the 36-hole championship match on Sunday and are scheduled to tee off at 1440 GMT.

Casey now has the chance to become the first Match Play champion to never trail in any match in the entire week and he has remarkably led 81 of the 82 holes he has played.

Fisher was only one behind before his game came apart.

He took four shots to get down to the par-five 13th green, and was lucky to escape with a halve when he twice went into the desert around the 14th green and took double bogey.

606: DEBATE

Ogilvy sank three birdies and an eagle in the last four holes as he pulled away from Cink for the victory.

The 31-year-old Australian holed a 13-foot birdie putt at 14, and at the 343-yard, par-four 15th he stuck his tee shot six feet from the pin and made his eagle putt.

He closed it out at the par-three 16th, landing his tee shot within 12 feet of the pin as Cink was right of the green and when Cink's chip rolled past the pin, the American conceded Ogilvy's birdie.

"Thirteen through 16, I didn't miss a beat," said Ogilvy.

"Really good up-and-down on 13, then 14 and 15 and 16 were just the way you want to play the last three holes of any match."

Cink, who was thumped 8&7 by Tiger Woods in last year's final, will play Fisher for third place in Sunday's 18-hole consolation final.

Only one Englishman had previously reached the last four of this event, with Ian Poulter appearing in the semis in 2005, but Fisher and Casey set up the head-to-head with impressive wins earlier in the day.

Casey's 4&3 win over American Sean O'Hair and Fisher's 2&1 victory over US Ryder Cup hero Justin Leonard ensured there would be an English finalist on Sunday.

Casey always looked comfortable against O'Hair as he went six up after 10 holes, continuing his run of never having gone behind in a match this week, and he claimed the victory at the 15th hole.

I played well and I've held my own against some of the best players in the world so it's been good

Rory McIlroy

In the last quarter-final to go out, Fisher was two up after 15 holes on Leonard but the American closed the gap with a birdie two at the 16th.

Leonard piled on the pressure at 17 with an approach shot from 190 yards to eight feet from the hole but Fisher responded by sending his second shot to eight feet from a fairway bunker 178 yards out.

Putting first, Leonard missed, leaving Fisher to hole out to win the match.

Northern Irishman McIlroy's hopes of glory came to an end after he lost 2&1 to Ogilvy in the quarter final.

The 19-year-old was in a philosophical mood after playing in his first tournament as a professional in the United States.

"I can take a lot out of this week," said McIlroy, who prior to Saturday had knocked out Louis Oosthuizen, Hunter Mahan and Tim Clark, who had beaten Tiger Woods in Arizona.

"I played well and I've held my own against some of the best players in the world so it's been good."

It was tight until the 11th when McIlroy found the desert off the tee on the way to a bogey six while the Australia birdied.

A birdie at the 13th to win the hole reduced the deficit to one hole and McIlroy managed a 12-foot birdie putt at the par-three 16th to extend the match, only for Ogilvy to close him out at the 17th.

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