5/20/2012

McDowell into Volvo Semi-finals



Graeme McDowell took advantage of the Spaniard's dodgy putting and will now play Rafael Cabrera-Bello in the next round of the Volvo World Matchplay semi-finals in Spain.

Garcia three-putted from just 20 feet to hand ­McDowell victory at the first extra hole of their scrappy quarter-final last night.


McDowell will now play another Spaniard Rafael Cabrera-Bello, who won the Desert Classic in February, in this morning’s semi-finals.

In the second match ­Scotland’s Paul Lawrie will take on the big-hitting ­Belgian, Nicolas Colsaerts.

And there will be a lot at stake for both Lawrie and McDowell who currently lie fifth and eighth in the ­qualifying table for this year’s Ryder Cup.

Should either of them ­collect the £560,000 winner’s cheque and 34 world-­ranking points, that would ­guarantee their place to take on the United States at Medinah near ­Chicago.

But where Lawrie, aiming to play for Europe for the first time since his debut at Brookline, looked ­impressive in thrashing double Major winner Retief Goosen 6&5, McDowell’s golf was strewn with errors.

He topped one shot with his three wood from semi-rough ­beside the eighth fairway, and he three -putted from off the green at the 18th hole to let Garcia take the match into ‘extra time’.

McDowell said: “The result was a good ­result, because it was a weird game. We handed it back and forth to each other. It was not a quality game and I feel like I dodged a bullet. But sometimes you have to win ugly to win these events.”

Earlier in the day, Ian Poulter was knocked out of the last-16 round by ­Alvaro Quiros in ­unusual ­circumstances. He had spent most of the night with a foot packed in ice after it had been run over by a woman in a ­motorised buggy on Friday night.

Pre-tournament favourite Poulter, however, took a 4&3 beating on the chin, ­saying: “I’m not going to use the ­injury as an ­excuse.”

Fellow favourite Justin Rose lost to Colsaerts by the same margin.


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