Els digs deep to win 6th HSBC title
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2004 HSBC World Match Play Championship | Wrap | 18 Oct 2004
The HSBC World Match Play Championship has gone to Ernie Els which doesn’t necessarily surprise anyone, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for Els in the four matches he played.
His first round match against the Volvo PGA champion Scott Drummond had Els on his toes early and it took all of his guile and talent to wear down a determined Drummond, who clearly “grows another leg” at Wentworth. In fact it took Els twenty one holes to finally get ahead of his opponent and he would then go on to win at the 35th.
In his next match against Angel Cabrera, Els appeared to be cruising when he got to an early three up lead after just six holes. But Cabrera too has a liking for Wentworth, having twice finished second at the Volvo PGA, and he reeled off one of the best finishes ever seen to a round at Wentworth. He played the last seven holes in six under to go to lunch in the quarter final, one up. When he bogeyed the first hole of the afternoon however the match was back to square and that was the last time Cabrera would taste the lead although the match remained on a knife edge until it ended with a one up Els victory.
The match that appeared on paper to be the toughest, against Harrington, was in fact the easiest, with Els taking an early lead and never giving Harrington a look in. Els would eventually win 5 and 4. Wentworth and Harrington do not seem to get on and this did little to rebuild their friendship.
In the final against Westwood, Els went ahead at the first, but within five holes he was two down. The match see-sawed and they went to lunch all square. Els’ birdie at the tough par four third (21st), followed by an eagle at the fourth (22nd), saw him jump to a two up lead before Westwood retaliated with a birdie at the par three fifth (23rd). The birdies dried up from that point until Westwood’s birdie at the par four 15th got the match back to a difference of one with three to play. The good work that Westwood had done in closing the gap was soon ruined by a bogey at the 34th and when they both birdied the par five, 35th, it was all over.
For Els it was yet another huge cheque, this time Ł1 million and the money list title in Europe has already been settled with two events to go. It likely already was, but there was a mathematical chance, prior to this past week, that Goosen or Harrington could well have caught the big South African.
Els becomes the first player to reach six wins in this event. Thirty-one years ago when Gary Player beat Graham Marsh at the fourth extra hole of the 1973 final, Player had won his fifth Piccadilly World Match Play Championship in the events ten year history to that point. Els’ win today was his 6th in the last eleven stagings of the event.
So in a week where the games most travelled player in recent years was copping flack from Commissioner Finchem about what Finchem sees as Els’ need to play more in the US, he answered in the best possible way by winning again.
Westwood’s effort once again highlighted just where he is at with his remarkable comeback over the past twelve months. A winner of this event in 2000, he has fought his way back from the lows of 2001 and 2002 to be inside the top ten again on the Volvo Order of Merit. He had been forced to fight off a remarkable Miguel Angel Jimenez comeback in the semi-final to get a crack at Els.
The surprise result of the week was the first round loss by Vijay Singh to Bernhard Langer. Singh birdied three of the last four holes to force a playoff but when he bogeyed the first extra hole the match was Langer’s.
The European Tour now heads to Madrid for the last full field event of the season before the limited field Volvo Masters at Valderrama.
