Two Australian survivors at Accenture
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2012 Accenture Match Play Championship | Round One | 23 Feb 2012
Four of the six Australians at the Accenture Match Play Championship have been eliminated but for the two who advanced past the opening round, their ongoing path through the remainder of the event will be determined by a fellow countryman.
Queenslanders Jason Day and John Senden will face off in tomorrow’s second round after Senden was never behind in his opening round match with England’s Simon Dyson and won 4&3 and Jason Day staged a miraculous recovery to defeat Rafael Cabrera Bello.
In contrast to Senden, Day was never ahead in his match until the moment when it most mattered, namely at the first extra hole of extra time which he birdied.
Day lost three of his first five holes against the Spaniard and was still three down with three to play before he birdied the 16th, 17th and 18th holes then added one more at the 19th to take the match.
In the other matches where Australians were involved, Adam Scott went down to England’s Robert Rock after leading narrowly for much of his match.
Greg Chalmers stayed close to Martin Kaymer early in their match but the German drew away through the middle of his round and eventually won 4&2.
Geoff Ogilvy face an in form Keegan Bradley, the two time champion going down early in his match and never recovering before losing 4&3.
Aaron Baddeley went up early in his match against Louis Oosthuizen but the encounter turned into a roller coaster affair before the South African won 2&1.
Perhaps the surprises on day one were the elimination of Webb Simpson by Italian Matteo Manassero, Ryo Ishikawa’s defeat of Bill Haas and Ernie Els’ defeat of the world number one Luke Donald. Els had only gained a start in the event courtesy of the withdrawal of Phil Mickelson.
