Vengeful Lee Westwood ousts Nick Watney from WGC Accenture Match Play Championship
World number three Lee Westwood finally took his long-awaited revenge when he thrashed American Nick Watney in the third round of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, making it into the quarterfinals scheduled on Saturday.
Watney, who has defeated Westwood in last two match play events, was hoping to reinvent his past victories yet again.
The Englishman, however, was in no mood of letting it go for the third time.
Westwood said, "I really didn't want to make it a hat trick of wins on his part. I like Nick. He's a nice fellow, a real gent. We talked about football going around out there. We hadn't done that the last three years. But I didn't really want to make it a hat trick".
The event is warming up as the last of the eight players have now managed to make it to the quarterfinals with some of the big names already sent packing.
World number one Luke Donald, as well as the former world number one Tiger Woods, both had to leave the scenic Ritz-Carlton at Doral, following their sad defeats in the respective rounds.
Westwood, making his 12th appearance in a match play event, is desperately trying to bag the title to win his first match play event.
On the contrary, Donald, another Englishman, is known for his trailblazing golf in the knock-out format.
Westwood opened up his round with birdies on both the opening holes, stepping on the heat on the in-form Watney right from the start.
Watney won the third hole with a birdie putt to reduce Westwood’s lead to 1up. Both players remained level-par for the rest of the four holes before Westwood carded another two birdies on par-five, 8th and par-four, 9th to go 3up.
The Englishman made the turn to card yet another birdie on the 10th to go 4up. Watney was only able to pull in one more hole on the back nine, thereby succumbing to a 3 & 2 defeat.
Westwood will now proceed to the Saturday quarterfinals and a victory in the quarterfinals will allow him to proceed to the final rounds.
A victory here at Tucson will catapult him to the world number one spot once again.
The 38-year-old Englishman was on top of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) at the same time last year, but was dethroned by the raging Martin Kaymer.
He reclaimed his number one spot again after a few weeks, only to lose it again to Donald at the BMW PGA Championship. He was never able to regain the top slot.
“Well, obviously I'd like to be No.1 in the world, but it's not really a priority. It's not really a goal I've set, you know, to win a Major championship, to win these World Golf Championships, to win in the States and do that more regularly are goals”.
Despite a blistering career, Westwood has not won a major event and will be hoping to bag the title before turning 40.
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