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Courtesy of in.reuters.com
In the NCAA Men?s Basketball tournament, no 16 seed has ever upset a number 1 team. But in Wednesday?s opening round of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, number 1 seed Tiger Woods was upstaged by the number 16 seed Thomas Bjorn.
Tiger hasn?t won a tournament in over a year.� Other than winning a Major Championship, this tournament could have been the best tournament for Woods to finally show us that his new swing can work somewhere other than the driving range.� After all, match play does allow for a player to drive deep and aim for the pin on any hole like Tiger loves to do. �After weeks of hearing, ?it?s a process, but we?re very close? a lot of Tiger?s fans were hoping to see him come back as strong as ever on Wednesday.
His opponent was a good friend and the number 16 seed in the Snead Division, Thomas Bjorn. Tiger started with a first hole bogey, leaving him 1 down heading to the second tee.� He quickly recovered and made it all square on the second, but it was a short lived tie.� Wood?s short game kept him down by 1 or 2 holes for the duration of the front nine.
Woods found his rhythm on the 10th tee securing the lead for the first time in the match.� On the fifteenth, Wood?s short game trouble caused him to fall 1 down heading to the last three holes.
On the eighteenth, we finally saw the Tiger we?ve all been waiting for.� After watching Bjorn?s tee shot, a conservative fairway wood, sail right down the side of the fairway, Tiger walked up to the tee with nothing but confidence and a driver. He put his tee shot deep down the middle of the fairway.� Bjorn put his next shot in the bunker deep and right of the pin, giving Tiger a shot to extend the match to extra holes.� Tiger put his second shot to about 12 feet from the hole leaving a putt for birdie.� Bjorn put his downhill sand shot within 5 feet, forcing Tiger to make the put to stay alive.
He sank it.
Showing a glimpse of the Tiger of old, he stepped up and drained the 12 footer for birdie in the clutch.� He then went straight to the 1st tee with the confident strut we?ve been waiting to see.� After some practice swings, Tiger put his 3 wood off the tee in the Arizona desert right of the fairway, ending Tiger?s tournament.
Bjorn put his drive in the fairway and his second shot on the green, securing his place in the next round.
After the match, reporters for the Golf Channel asked where he felt he was in this ?process? he was undergoing.� Tiger simply said,
?Pissed.?
After being asked if we might see him next week and he said, ?right now isn?t a good time to ask that.?� Hopefully Tiger can work through the process and show his new swing by The Masters, quite possibly the greatest stage to watch Tiger?s comeback begin.
Two of the top players in this week?s matchups, Phil Mickelson and Martin Kaymer, are both playing well.� Neither of them stepped on to the fourteenth tee, having knocked out their opponents on the 13th and 12th holes respectively.�� It is quite possible we will be watching Mickelson and Kaymer battle it out on NBC this Sunday afternoon.
Courtesy of sportsillustrated.cnn.com
The first 64 matches in this week?s event had eight groups head to sudden death and fourteen upsets, resulting in the elimination of Ian Poulter, the defending champion. �Poulter, the number 3 seed in the Hogan Division, went down on the nineteenth hole to the number 14 seed Stewart Cink.� Matteo Manassero, the seventeen year old number 15 seed in the Jones Division, outplayed the number 2 seed Steve Stricker �? 2 up with 1 to play. Retief Goosen, the number 4 seed in the Jones Division, lost to the number 13 seed K.J. Choi ? down 1 on the eighteenth.� Jim Furyk, the number 3 seed in the Player Division lost to the number 14 seed Ryan Palmer ? down 2 on the eighteenth.�� The most disappointing upset of the day was clearly Tiger Woods.
The WGC Accenture Match Play Championship is one of the best of the year.� Like March Madness for NCAA Basketball fans, golf fans fill out brackets and try to predict upsets.� The best 64 golfers in the world head out to the par 72 Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in the desert just north of Tuscan, Arizona to fight for their share of the $8.5 million purse and their shot at 550 points for the FedEx Cup.
By: Nate Dewan
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