Mahan and Johnson crush Yang and Molinari in the second round of Accenture Match Play Championship – Golf News
Two Americans, Hunter Mahan and Dustin Johnson, made their way into third round of the World Golf Championship - Accenture Match Play Championship.
They defeated South Korean Yang Yong-eun and Italy's Francesco Molinari, respectively, at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain – Marana, Arizona on Thursday, February 23, 2012.
Mahan started his round with a bogey to provide a single-point lead to Yang, which he recovered with a birdie on the very next hole he played.
Yang clinched another point on the third with a birdie, which proved to be his last-time lead throughout the game.
A total of five consecutive birdies starting from the par-four fourth allowed Mahan to get a four-up lead on the first eight holes.
The 14th and 15th conceded holes by Yang closed out the game in favour of Mahan. Mahan carded a total of seven birdies and three bogeys in the one-sided match.
“I was playing as well as I could, hitting fairways and greens, giving myself good looks,” Mahan said.
“If you hit it good around here where these pins are and you get on the right level, you are going to have some putts, you are going to be able to make some putts. Today I was able to do that,” he added.
Johnson, in the other match, demolished Molinari with 7&5 on just 13 holes they played. He carded a total of six birdies against a lone bogey on the first 12 holes he played.
He then reached the 10 feet distance to the par-five 13th with only two shots when the Italian conceded and shook hands with his conqueror.
“That momentum (from Wednesday) kind of carried over to today,” Johnson said. “I got off to a good start and just played really solidly today”.
The world number two, Rory McIlroy, and world number three, Lee Westwood, also won their matches and kept alive their chances of securing top position in the Official World Golf Rankings.
After Luke Donald lost to Ernie Els in the opening round of the event, both the players can improve their positions in rankings with a win in the tournament.
Tags: