Els wins seventh World Matchplay title

Ernie Els has done something no one else has winning the HSBC World Match Play Championship for he seventh time and he did it in impressive style. When you consider that you must beat 4 players straight to win the tournament it is a fairly impressive result, even with the top players missing. Els beat Colin Montgomerie, Andres Romero, Henrik Stenson and, finally, the reigning US Open Champion Cabrera 6&4 to win the 1000000 pound prize money. The win shoots Els to the top of the European order of merit.

It might be said that this is a win that Els needed having gone winless since last December in a streak that even had sports writers saying he was past it. In an interview Ernie told reporters:

“This is a very important tournament to me and my career. We had some really fine players here this week and it needed good golf to get through.

“Obviously the World Number One, Mr Woods, wasn’t here this week but it’s a tough one to win. It’s very satisfying to win any tournament but I’ve always been a fan of this kind of match play event.

“I’ve played some good golf these last two years and although it might seem that I’m a very patient guy, in fact I am quite impatient when it comes to getting results. So to get a win, and to play the way I did this week, is really satisfying. Hopefully this opens up the doors for me to get other wins.”

Path to Victory

Ernie Els	v	Colin Montgomerie
Ernie Els won 6 & 5

Andres Romero	v	Ernie Els
Ernie Els won 6 & 5

Henrik Stenson	v	Ernie Els
Ernie Els won 3 & 2

Angel Cabrera	v	Ernie Els
Ernie Els won 6 & 4

HSBC World Match Play Championship

This is another of my favourite European Tour golf tournaments, maybe I just like it when things are a little different or something. For those new to the game match play this little snipet from wikipedia.org might help explain things better:

Unlike stroke play, in which the unit of scoring is the stroke, in match play the unit of scoring is the hole. On each hole, the most that can be gained is one point. Golfers play as normal. The golfer with the lowest score on a given hole receives one point. If the golfers tie, then the hole is halved.

Match play scores of a game in progress are kept with a running tally. At the start of a match, the score is "all square" or tied. The score is then recorded in terms of one player's lead over another player. For example, if Player A has won 3 holes, Player B has won 1 hole and they have halved 2 (or any number of) holes, Player A is said to be leading, "2-up" (3 holes won minus 1 hole lost).

These are the results from the first round (source www.europeantour.com):

Match : 1 Paul Casey v Jerry Kelly Paul Casey won 3 & 2 Match : 2 Retief Goosen v Angel Cabrera Angel Cabrera won 6 & 5 Match : 3 Justin Rose v Hunter Mahan Hunter Mahan won 5 & 4 Match : 4 Rory Sabbatini v Søren Hansen Søren Hansen won 4 & 3 Match : 5 Padraig Harrington v Anders Hansen Anders Hansen won 4 & 2 Match : 6 Henrik Stenson v Woody Austin Henrik Stenson won by 1 Hole Match : 7 Niclas Fasth v Andres Romero Andres Romero won 3 & 2 Match : 8 Ernie Els v Colin Montgomerie Ernie Els won 6 & 5

For me the most interesting results were Ernie Els thrashing Colin Montgomerie and Angel Cabrera also thrashing Retief Goosen, who I rate as a very good player. I also liked the look of Andres Romero and after his British Open heroics could be one of the players to watch next year!

In the Quarter finals we have:
Paul Casey V Angel Cabrera
Hunter Mahan V Søren Hansen
Anders Hansen V Henrik Stenson
Andres Romero V Ernie Els

I think the match to watch out for will be Romero and Els both coming off impressive performances yesterday!