Donald, Kaymer all-square after nine

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February 27, 2011

Latest news from the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at Dove Mountain in Arizona.

England’s Luke Donald lost a three-hole lead and was level with new world number one Martin Kaymer at the halfway point of their WGC-Accenture Match Play final in Tucson today.
In a match suspended briefly on the fourth because of a hailstorm – there had been snow during the night – Donald won three of the first five holes.
But his Ryder Cup team-mate, whose semi-final victory over Bubba Watson meant he dethroned Lee Westwood at the top of the rankings, took the short sixth with a par, the long eighth with a birdie and then the ninth with a bogey after Donald came up short in the desert scrub and ran up a triple-bogey seven.
Donald had still not been behind all week, though, as he chased a first victory in America for five years.
An 18-footer for birdie at the second had put him in front and he hit his approach to within three feet of the flag on the fourth when play resumed after a 10-minute hold-up.
His German opponent then drove into the wilderness on the next and had to take a penalty drop.
Donald had yet to play the final hole and in his two previous games had seen off Ryan Moore 5&4 and then Matt Kuchar 6&5.
In all he had played 73 holes to Kaymer’s 85, but it was less of a factor with the final being cut from two rounds to one this year.
Victory for Donald would take him all the way from ninth in the world to third behind Kaymer and Westwood, but even if he lost he would move to sixth and equal his career high.
There was also, of course, a huge amount of money at stake – £864,838 for the winner compared to £525,080 for the runner-up.
Kaymer was trying to make it five wins in his last 11 starts, a run that began with his first major title at the USPGA championship last August.
In the all-American third place play-off, meanwhile, Kuchar led Watson by two with eight to play – after double-bogeys for both of them on the 10th in the cold and windy conditions.