McDowell Proves Lowry Match

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Graeme McDowell was pleased to progress to the last eight of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship after a 3 and 2 win over Shane Lowry.

The former US Open Champion recovered from losing the second hole to take five of the next seven against Rory McIlroy’s conqueror.

Lowry took the 15th after McDowell lost his drive then duffed a chip, but a par at the 16th was good enough to send him through to the quarter0final.

“With the possibility of another 18 holes this afternoon, I was very keen to get the match out of the way as soon as I could, especially when I was three and four up,” said the Northern Irishman.

“But Shane is a gritty competitor, very difficult to get the poker face on and really knuckle down and play Shane, being a good friend like he is. 

“When he hit that pin with the flop shot on 13, I was licking my chops there thinking I had a chance to go five up with five to play, and all of a sudden I found myself down 16 and really not wanting to go down much past that.”

Australian Jason Day was next for McDowell after a speedy turnaround, and The Ryder Cup star was expecting a tough battle.

“I enjoy the mano a mano of match play and the idiosyncrasies that different players have,” he added.

“I've had a few players this week make me putt short ones, so I have no problem with that. I think I'd probably prefer to play Jason than Bubba - Bubba would have been playing a different golf course from me. 

“At least I can play the same golf course as J.D. and hopefully playing the way I'm playing I have a chance to beat him.”

Ian Poulter remains on course for a second WGC Match Play title in Arizona after reaching the quarter-finals with a win over South African Tim Clark.

The Englishman won 5&3 in the third round and will return to action later on Saturday against Steve Stricker in the last eight.

Organisers are looking to get back on schedule after freak snowstorms delayed the start of the competition.

Third-round results (US unless stated):

Graeme McDowell (NI) bt Shane Lowry (Ire) 3&2

Jason Day (Aus) bt Bubba Watson 4&3

Robert Garrigus bt Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden) 3&1

Matt Kuchar bt Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium) 4&3

Webb Simpson bt Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano 2 up

Hunter Mahan bt Martin Kaymer (Germany) 5&4

Steve Stricker bt Scott Piercy by 1 hole

Ian Poulter (Eng) bt Tim Clark (South Africa) 5&3

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Not the Nike Clubs - McIlroy

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Rory McIlroy said his iron play let him down as suffered a first-round defeat at the World Matchplay Championship, but he denied his loss had anything to do with his switch to new Nike clubs.

Shane Lowry, an old friend of the Northern Irishman from their amateur days, defeated McIlroy 1-up with the aid of chip-ins at the 11th and 12th holes at Dove Mountain, and an eagle on the par-five 13th, where he hit a fairway wood from 258 yards to five feet.

"I didn't make enough birdies in the end," said McIlroy, who missed the cut at the European Tour event in Abu Dhabi last month in his only other start this season.

"Shane had a nice little stretch around part of the back nine. I hung in there, but I just didn't do enough."

While McIlroy bemoaned his iron play, he did not seem to think it had to do with his highly publicised switch to Nike equipment.

"I've just been missing a lot of them right.... I think it's more a timing thing than anything else," he said.

"I felt like I drew the ball really well," he added. "I hit the ball well off the tee. I just need to take advantage of the driving I've been doing."

While Lowry, the 64th-seed in the 64-man field, said he knew "deep down" that he could beat McIlroy, he admitted he was nervous playing the first few holes despite their friendship.

"It was much easier for me to play against Rory than it would have been playing against Tiger (Woods), purely because I just know Rory so well," said Lowry, who had dinner with McIlroy earlier in the week. "It was quite easy that way, but still quite nerve-wracking on the first tee."

Despite their friendship, there was little small talk as the match progressed.

"There wasn't that much chatter," McIlroy said. "We were kind of chatting the first few holes and then it was getting pretty tight around the turn, and the back nine there wasn't much talk out there."

Lowry added: "I tried to keep it that way. I said to my caddie, walking down 11 or 12, 'He's not liking this one bit.'

"He's the one under pressure, I've got nothing to lose, so let's have a go from here."

Moments after McIlroy's exit, Charles Howell III beat the second-seeded Woods on the 17th hole. Howell nearly holed a wedge for birdie on the 16th and made a 25-foot birdie on the 16th to seize control.

"I had nothing to lose," said Howell, who started the year outside the top 100 in the world and hasn't qualified for the World Matchplay in five years. "In this format, match play is crazy. He's Tiger Woods. I was lucky to hang in there."

The final matches were played in near darkness, and they could have stopped after 15 holes. Woods wanted to play on, even though Howell had the momentum. Woods was 2 under for the day, and neither of them made a bogey.

"We both played well," Woods said. "He made a couple of more birdies than I did. He played well, and he's advancing."

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Lowry Earns GMAC Test

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Graeme McDowell will face Shane Lowry in another all-Irish clash at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship after another day of upsets in Arizona.

Lowry followed up his notable scalping of World Number One McIlroy by thrashing Carl Pettersson 6 and 5, while McDowell, having knocked out Padraig Harrington, beat another Swede, Alex Noren, at the 20th.

The Ulsterman was one down with one to play, but fired in a brilliant approach to four feet and won after his opponent strayed into the desert trying to reach the green on the par five second in two.

A delighted Lowry said: "I scraped the win against Rory and my iron play was a lot better. I put pressure on him the whole game.

"I wish every week was match play - I enjoy the head-to-head."

Luke Donald was amongst those knocked out in the second round as the giant-killing continued in the year’s first World Golf Championships event.

Made favourite for the title after the first round defeats of the Official World Golf Ranking's top two, McIlroy and Tiger Woods, third seed and 2011 winner Donald was beaten 7 and 6 by unheralded Scott Piercy.

With Justin Rose and Louis Oosthuizen also bowing out eighth seed Bubba Watson is now the highest-ranked player left in - and he had to go to the fourth extra hole to get the better of Ryder Cup team-mate Jim Furyk.

Also still alive, though, are 2010 champion Ian Poulter, McIlroy's Lowry - only playing because Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker pulled out - and McDowell.

The two Irishmen play each other next, while Poulter takes on South African Tim Clark in the first of two rounds now scheduled for Saturday following the delays caused by the freakish snowstorm earlier in the week.

American Piercy, who has quietly made his way to 37th in the world, sank his four iron approach to the fifth for an eagle two and turned in a marvellous six under par 30.

"Scott played very well, I played just very average," Donald said.

"I need to drive it well around this course. There's a few forced carries out there and probably I didn't drive it well enough to put any pressure on Scott.

"But he was seven under through 12 and just playing extremely solid.

"I had a few opportunities on the greens, but for whatever reason I was just not making the putts and hence I'm going home."

Poulter, who lifted the trophy three years ago, was almost as impressive as Piercy as he made it through to the last 16 with a 3 and 1 victory over another of the home contingent in Bo Van Pelt, but fifth seed Rose lost 3 and 2 to Ryder Cup colleague Nicolas Colsaerts.

"I wish every week was match play - I enjoy the head-to-head."

Donald, who returned from a long winter break only last week, had beaten German Marcel Siem with two closing birdies, but gave Piercy just the encouragement he perhaps needed by setting off again with a double bogey six.

The English star could never have expected to be six down by the so-called halfway point, though, and yet another birdie by Piercy on the short 12th finished things off.

Poulter, unbeaten hero of Europe's triumph in Chicago last September and with match play crowns to his name on both sides of the Atlantic, has shown no ill-effects of taking six weeks off coming into the tournament.

"It feels pretty good," he said. "It was always a little risky taking that amount of time off, but it's working out pretty well.

"I worked hard at home, put some new irons in the bag and I couldn't be any fresher or fitter than I am right now.

"I didn't make any silly mistakes and I guess making seven birdies you are going to be tough to beat."

American Ryder Cup player Matt Kuchar is next up for Colsaerts.

Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño provided one of the day’s best performances to beat Woods’ conqueror Charles Howell III 6 and 5, and now faces US Open Champion Webb Simpson.

German Martin Kaymer made it past Spaniard Rafael Cabrera-Bello to set up a meeting with defending champion Hunter Mahan, while Swede Fredrik Jacobson faces Robert Garrigus with seven of the eight third round matches featuring a European.

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