World Golf Championship: England's Ross McGowan beats top seed Stricker

England's Ross McGowan beats top seed Stricker

Accenture World Golf Championship, Arizona:
Venue: Ritz-Carlton GC Dates: 17-21 February Coverage: Live on Sky Sports, regular updates on BBC Radio 5 Live, scorecards and reports on BBC website

McGowan appearance is down to the absence of Woods and Mickelson

England's Ross McGowan caused a major upset by beating top seed Steve Stricker in the first round of the Accenture Match Play in Arizona.

World number 66 McGowan, who was a late call-up for the event, beat his American opponent on the 19th hole.
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy staged a magnificent comeback to defeat American Kevin Na on the final green.
And there were wins for England's Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Luke Donald and Oliver Wilson.

McGowan, 27, is only in the World Golf Championships event because of the withdrawals of world number one Tiger Woods and world number three Phil Mickelson.

The 20-year-old McIlroy, the fifth seed, was four down early on and two behind with four to play but managed to secure a 1-up win over his unheralded opponent. Westwood beat fellow Englishman Chris Wood 3&1, while Donald carded eight birdies to see off former Walker Cup team-mate Graeme McDowell 2&1.

Poulter, too, staged a fine comeback, going from two up to two down against former Open champion Justin Leonard before winning on the first extra hole. Casey, last year's runner-up to Australian Geoff Ogilvy, had a thumping 5&4 success over Canadian Stephen Ames, while Wilson defeated Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez 3&2.

Out, though, went Volvo World Match Play champion Ross Fisher of England, who was crushed 5&4 by Thai Thongchai Jaidee, as well as three-time major winner Padraig Harrington, who surprisingly lost 3&1 to Indian Jeev Milkha Singh.

Another Englishman, world number 54 Simon Dyson, was beaten 3&1 by American Sean O'Hair.
McIlroy, who plays world number 40 Wilson in the next round, said: "I hung in well, but was pretty fortunate to get through and I'll need to play better if I want to progress into the latter stages.
"Ollie's a great competitor, a Ryder Cup player and he's going to be very tough."

World number 23 Donald was runner-up in Los Angeles two weeks ago and looks back to his best, while McDowell is now in danger of dropping out of the world's top 50. "The last two years I've run into a buzz-saw," said McDowell. "Last year Zach Johnson made eight or nine birdies and Luke just putted the eyes out of it. Every time I smelt a chance he made a putt.
"It does not matter how well you play in this. If someone plays better you go home."

Ogilvy romped to a 7&5 victory over Swede Alexander Noren, Spain's Sergio Garcia has a 2-up win over David Toms and Dane Anders Hansen had a notable 2&1 win over US Open champion Lucas Glover.

Open champion Stewart Cink matched McIlroy's fightback when he also turned round a four-hole deficit to beat Italian Edoardo Molinari on the last - and Molinari's brother Francesco lost on the 21st to Zach Johnson.
 

WorldRFormer winner and world number 10 Henrik Stenson withdrew after just one hole of his match against American Ben Crane because he was suffering from flu symptoms.
via news.bbc.co.uk