Els shatters Donald's defence in the opening round of the Accenture Match Play Championship – Golf News
The opening round of the World Golf Championship - Accenture Match Play Championship witnessed one of the greatest upsets in the history of golf when world number one and defending champion, Luke Donald, lost to the lowest-ranked player of the event, Ernie
Els, by 5&4 on Wednesday, February 22, 2012.
Els took a one-point lead on the par-three third when Donald shank his ball in the water hazard followed by a repeated shot, forcing him to concede the hole.
Both the players made par-bogey-par on the next three holes. On the par-four seventh, Donald made his only birdie of the match to get a point, squaring the score on the leaderboard.
Afterwards, Donald was seen struggling against a player who was the least favourite to win the match.
Meanwhile, Els went five up in the next seven holes, finishing with a birdie putt on the par-four 14th to close up the game.
“I am not sure where to start to explain that other than that I didn't have control of my golf ball and consequently didn't play very well,” said Donald, who became the fourth winner of this event in a row to lose in the first round the following year.
He also commented on the shots that found a water hazard twice on the third hole, saying that it shattered his confidence, which in result, affected his performance on rest of the holes he played.
He said that he was unable to focus on the game and lost advantage of the short game that is always useful in match play format games.
The opening round of the first WGC of the year also witnessed some other heavy defeats on the course such as Open Champion Darren Clarke and Ian Poulter.
Another interesting match of the event was played between Ye Yang and Graeme McDowell where Yang came out victorious by 2&1.
McDowell was in search of a win against Yang in order to take revenge of the defeat he suffered in the third round of the 2011 Accenture Match Play Championship.
However, Yang did not give him any chance to surge up and finished the game with a birdie on par-four 17th.
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