Jimenez whips Schwartzel

European Tour

In the Volvo World Match Play’s first upset, Charl Schwartzel has been whipped by Miguel Angel Jimenez.

In the first upset of the Volvo World Match Play Championship, recent Masters winner Charl Schwartzel has been whipped 6&5 by Spanish Ryder Cup veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez..

Schwartzel, who was battling to play catch-up from the moment he missed the green on the opening hole in Thursday’s first round at Finca Cortesin near Estepona, and never recovered, isn’t necessarily dead in the water, however.

Because the new format sees the 24 players split into eight groups of three, Schwartzel could still go through to the last 16 from the first two rounds of round robin competition if his next opponent, Johan Edfors, fails to win either of his two round robin matches on Friday.

On Thursday, when Edfors wasn’t playing, Jimenez went to the turn in a two-under-par 35 to the South African’s 39, and after Schwartzel had bogeyed the long 11th to fall further behind, Jimenez hit his approach to the 413-yard 13th to within a foot of the hole to put the final nail in Schwartzel’s coffin
In the first game, meanwhile Ian Poulter, who lost his first three holes this morning, was one down with four to play against Ryder Cup team-mate Francesco Molinari of Italy, while Englishman Paul Casey, a former World Match Play champion, trailed Alvaro Quiros by two with six hole to play.

Behind them three battles raged with the outcomes wide open

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell were on level terms with South Africans Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen after 11 and nine holes respectively and World number three Martin Kaymer was also all square with Korean YE Yang at the turn.

World No 1 Lee Westwood, in the meantime, was looking pretty solid and stood two up after seven against Dane Anders Hansen.

Reigning WGC-Accenture match play champion Luke Donald, currently the World No 2, was also looking relatively comfortable.

He was three up on lone American Ryan Moore after eight holes.

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