Brace For Impact: Tiger And Rory In Race To Tucson Airport
/Doug Ferguson says it's the first time since '02 that the top two seeds are gone from the WGC Accenture Match Play.
Kudos to Golf Channel/NBC for a killer final hour of coverage in the dark and cold, even if Roger Maltbie started moaning about the dark and cold way too early and we had to hear Gary Koch say the world "lengthy" 132 times Thursday.
Let the analysis of Nike's two stars begin!
**The quick highlight reel from ESPN:
**Tim Rosaforte's profile of McIlroy upsetter Shane Lowry from nearly 4 years ago after the rotund lad won the Irish Open.
**Ryan Lavner quotes Lowry at length on his upset win over McIlroy and talking about some of this week's backstory between the two former teammates.
“He did hit a few ropey shots today coming in,” Lowry said. “But I mean, everyone hits bad shots. At the end of the day, he’s only human.”
On Tuesday, two days before he eventually would peg it against McIlroy, and just a few hours before they dined together at Lil Abner’s, Lowry conceded that a victory over the world No. 1 would be “one of the great stories of my career.”
The accomplishment wasn’t but 30 minutes old. McIlroy was still gathering his belongings in the locker room. Byrne was still skimming through messages on his cellphone. But Lowry was asked how it felt now that he’d knocked off his former teammate, his good friend, the top-ranked player in the world.
“It’s definitely a day I’m going to remember,” Lowry said. “I’m sure, after a few weeks or a couple of months, I will slag Rory over it. But at the end of the day, it’s only the first round. I’ve only beaten one player, and I’m here to beat more.”
Jeff Rude analyzes Tiger's loss and based on the numbers, it's not as if he played poorly. Charles Howell was just a little bit greater.
Woods played well, missing just one fairway and three greens in regulation. But Howell just played better in the only one of the 32 opening matches that featured no bogeys. Howell made four birdies to Woods’ two, missed only two greens and putted better, particularly from long range.
“I hit a lot of good shots out there,” Woods said. “Unfortunately it’s the nature of the format. It’s just the way it goes. I’ve seen matches where a guy shoots 7-under-par and he’s going home, and I remember at La Costa there was a match where a player shot 7 over and won. It happens.”
Woods will play in next week’s Honda Classic near his home in south Florida. But he had plans before that.
“Go get warm,” he said.
Sean Martin looks at the second round matchups both set and hypothetical and dares to make predictions.
