Hunter Mahan takes over Yang to proceed to the third round of WGC Accenture Match Play Championship
The scenic Ritz-Carlton at Doral is again bustling with activity as the top-64 players from around the world are pitched in a high profile battle to the top.
Some of the top-ranked golfers of the likes of world number one Luke Donald and former world number one Tiger Woods have already left the event after failing to qualify for the proceeding rounds.
The event has now moved to the final 16 players who would be poised for the knock-out format over the weekend.
Hunter Mahan, one of the rampaging Americans in the event, defeated Y.E. Yang by an overwhelming 5 & 3 to proceed to the third round.
The round turned out to be a stiff battle between the two veterans earlier in the day but Mahan worked his way through the rest of the holes to considerably overpower the 2009 PGA Champion. He pulled in no fewer than seven birdies.
Mahan said, "I was swinging nice. Hit a lot of good shots. It was all clicking".
The two players opened up with each carding consecutive holes, until Mahan exploded into a string of five birdies, convincingly edging past Yang by 4up.
Yang did have a slight chance to regain momentum when Mahan stumbled on bunkers on ninth and tenth, but the South Korean was not able to capitalise on Mahan’s mistakes sufficiently.
Mahan, ranked 22nd on the official World Golf Rankings (OWGR), also made it to the third round of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship last year but was overtaken by Martin Kaymer in Friday’s round.
Mahan has not won an event since his last victory at WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August 2010.
He came close to landing a title on several occasions in 2011 but was not able to successfully close his bids in the final rounds.
He lost the lucrative Tour Championship to Bill Haas when the later birdied the third extra hole to lift the title.
Mahan also had a disappointing performance in last year’s major events, when he missed the halfway cut in the Masters, the US Open as well as the Open Championship.
He finished for a joint 19th at the PGA Championship in Atlanta. He will be hoping to break his winless spree for the moment, on the final day of the star-studded event.
Meanwhile, Yang also continues with his downslide. He has not won a title since his last victory at Volvo China Open in 2010.
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