Donald, Kaymer in, G-Mac’s out

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bruced
May 21, 2011

Luke Donald will face Martin Kaymer in Sunday’s semi-finals of the Volvo World Match Play Championship.

Luke Donald will face Martin Kaymer in Sunday’s semi-finals of the Volvo World Match Play Championship at the Finca Cortesin Golf Club in Andalucia, Spain.

This only three months after Donald, the current World No 2, beat Kaymer, the World No 3, 3 & 2 at the WGC-Accenture World Match Play final in Arizona.

And with Lee Westwood being dumped out of the the Spanish contest in Saturday morning’s last 16 round by fellow Englishman Ian Poulter, himself a recent WGC-Accenture Match Play winner, either Donald or Kaymer could go to the top of the World Rankings list if they go through and win Sunday afternoon’s final.

Unbeaten now in ten successive match-play contests, Donald beat Swede Johan Edfors at the 19th in a closely fought contest on Saturday morning and then went on to edge out South Africa’s reigning Masters champion, Charl Schwartzel, at the last in Saturday afternoon’s quarter finals.

Donald admitted he was relieved to come through at the first extra hole against Edfors – he had been two down with three to play – and then in the quarter-finals to beat Schwartzel on the last.

“I escaped this morning,” he said, “but then I played a lot better and made it hard for Charl.”

He certainly did, shooting a six under par 66 in winning by two holes.

He believes he has the psychological edge on Kaymer after beating him so recently, but he also admits he has been “under the weather” for the last three weeks.

Kaymer, in the meantime, looked a lot more comfortable in going through to Sunday’s semi-final with a 3 & 2 victory over Dane Søren Kjeldsen in the morning and with a two-hole win over Quiros in the afternoon

Poulter, after his gruelling battle with Westwood, went straight into another all-Ryder Cup clash with Italian Francesco Molinari in the afternoon quarter-finals and after another see-saw battle, eventually came out the winner by two holes at the 18th.

“I didn’t make any putts, he did and he had a couple more breaks than me,” said Westwood after his defeat.

“That’s the frustrating thing about match play and especially 18-hole match play – sometimes it’s not reflective of how the players are playing.”

Poulter will now play Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, who, once again, pulled off an upset, this time by knocking out Rory McILroy’s Saturday morning conquorer, good friend and fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell.

Yes, believe it or not, McDowell, the US Open champion and 2010 Ryder Cup hero, became the latest victim of the lanky Belgium, who, without doubt, is this year’s Match Play giant killer.

The quarter final results
Martin Kaymer (Ger) beat Alvaro Quiros (Spa) by two holes
Luke Donald (Eng) beat Charl Schwartzel (RSA) by two holes’
Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) beat Graeme McDowell (Nir) 2 & 1
Ian Poulter (Eng) beat Francesco Molinari (Ita) by two holes

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