Manassero upsets Simpson in the opening round of Accenture Match Play Championship – Golf News
The first-round match between Matteo Manassero, a 15th seed, and Webb Simpson, No. 2 seed, in the World Golf Championship – Accenture Match Play Championship witnessed the biggest upset of the day when Simpson lost 3&2 after a tough battle on
Wednesday, February 22, 2012.
Simpson was among the hot favourites to win the Match Play event as he entered the event with great stats on his profile.
He finished outside the top 10 only once since his appearance in the 2011 PGA Championship. Moreover, he was tied for eighth in last week’s Northern Trust Open.
Besides his current performances, he also ranks sixth in the Official World Golf Rankings, which speaks of his performances in the last one year.
However, he failed to capitalise on his experience and form in the first WGC of the year and faltered against a man who was least likely to beat him in the game.
Manassero went 1-up on the very first hole with a birdie followed by a par shot on second after Simpson missed the par putt converting to bogey.
He again birdied the par-4 fourth to go 3-up on the leaderboard. However, a bogey on the very next hole reduced his lead to two again.
It seemed as if both the players were playing see-saw on the leaderboard with Manassero’s three’s and two’s.
At one point, Simpson tried to make a comeback with three straight birdies on the back nine.
However, Manassero did not give him many chances to offset his lead completely and closed him out with back-to-back points on the 15th and 16th.
“There is always something really nice here that doesn't give me that much tension,” said Manassero. “I had nothing to lose. I wasn't tense. I was really free and trying to do my best on every shot and it ended up being good”.
Another huge upset of the day was when the world number one and the number one seed, Luke Donald, lost to the lowest-ranked Els in the tournament by 5&4.
"I don't think it would have mattered who I played today. I just didn't play well," Donald said. "I gave away too many holes and made too many mistakes. You can't do that in match play against anyone, let alone Ernie".
On the whole, there were 15 matches out of the total 32, where lower seeded players outclassed their higher seeded opponents.
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