Sabbatini takes control of Honda Classic with five shot lead

The Honda Classic is Rory Sabbatini’s to lose, after the South African carded a third round 66 to open up a five shot lead at the top of the leaderboard. Sabbatini closed on 9-under par 201 as he seeks to add to his five PGA Tour wins; the most recent coming back in2009.

Sabbatini made back-to-back birdies on the 4th and 5th holes before a delay on the 6th hole threatened to halt his momentum, as Jerry Kelly in the group ahead had to identify his ball which was stuck in a tree. But once the group had cleared the green, Sabbatini fired his approach to ten feet, although had to settle for par.

Sabbatini went on to make another brace of birdies at the 10th and 11th holes, before a bogey at the 12th was followed by another birdie at the 13th hole. From there, the South African parred in to build up the sizeable gap over Kelly and former US PGA champion, YE Yang.

Kelly, who had to use a news photographer’s zoom lens to identify his ball and so avoid a penalty finished with a 2-under par 68, while Korean Yang shot a 3-under par 67.

Gary Woodland moved into sole fourth with a 2-under par 68, but overnight leader Kyle Stanley dropped to fifth following his 74 as Sabbatini turned the screw on his title chances.

This year’s event has been a difficult one for scoring, and so it proved again with only nine players in the weekend’s field posting three round totals below par. Charles Howell III, Matt Bettencourt, Tommy Gainey and Ricky Barnes are the only others to post in the red, and the quartet share sixth place on 1-under.

Ryder Cup player Jeff Overton and Australian Stuart Appleby share tenth spot of level par.

With the wind again expected to blow on Sunday, Sabbatini’s lead might yet prove to be insufficient.

Tipster picks Luke Donald and Robert Allenby fell further behind the leaders; the Englishman posting a 2-over par 72 to slip to 3-over par overall, while Allenby carded a 1-over par 71 to drop to 5-over par overall.

Lee Westwood, who needs to finish in sole 3rd place or better to regain his world number one ranking, gave himself a mountain to climb following a 5-over par 75, which dropped him to a share of 30th.

WGC-Accenture Match Play Third Round Matches Review

From a starting lineup of 64, the WGC-Accenture Match Play tournament has been whittled down to the final 8 players, and another big name crashed out of the tournament.

Ryder Cup player Luke Donald continued his march towards the title with a 3&2 win over Italian Matteo Manassero in the Bobby Jones bracket. Manassero, who had already eliminated Steve Stricker and Charl Schwartzel . Donald led from the outset of the match and the Englishman was four up at the turn and seemingly cruising to victory over the 17-year old Manassero. Another bogey at 10 increased the deficit to five, but Manassero staged a mini-revival to claw back to 3 down through 15 and give himself a chance. But a two-putt par on the 16th by Donald was enough to close out the victory.

Donald will play Ryan Moore for a spot in the semi-finals. Moore defeated Nick Watney at the 19th hole, and again played solidly in his match; rolling in a 11-foot birdie putt to win. It was his sixth birdie of the day, and Moore also made an eagle and one solitary bogey as he saw off Watney, who had eliminated world number one Lee Westwood in the previous round.

4th Round Matches:
Luke Donald v Ryan Moore

The winner of the Bobby Jones bracket will play the winner of the Ben Hogan bracket for a place in the final on Sunday, and it will be either Matt Kuchar or Y.E Yang who progresses to contest the semi-final match.

Kuchar saw off his Ryder Cup team-mate Rickie Fowler 2&1 in an eventful match which took in plenty of the Arizona desert, and had a smattering of penalty shots. Fowler, who had taken the scalp of Phil Mickelson in the previous round was two down after just three holes, but fought back to square the match, before Kuchar edged in front again at the 10th. Kuchar was 3 up after the young American bogeyed the 11th and 12th, before Fowler again battled back to get to within one hole at the 16th. However an approach to within 5 feet for par at the 17th was enough to close the victory as Fowler failed to get up and down from the back of the green.

Y.E. Yang meanwhile eliminated US Open champion Graeme McDowell 3&2, closing out with a chip-in at the 16th hole. McDowell had no answer to Yang’s explosive start, which saw three birdies in his first four holes to open up a 2-hole lead, but dug deep to square the match at the 10th. The pair remained tied until the 14th hole, where Yang stepped up a gear to leave McDowell trailing; the Korean launching a birdie streak that saw him make three consecutive gains to see off the Northern Irishman.
4th Round Matches:
Matt Kuchar v Y.E. Yang

In the Sam Snead group, Bubba Watson demolished former two-time Accenture winner Geoff Ogilvy by 6&4. The big-hitting left hander put on a show of exhibition golf that saw him shoot a theoretical 9-under par score through 14 holes to leave Australian Ogilvy reeling.

Watson was 3 up through the first three holes, and although Ogilvy won the fifth, he couldn’t build on the gain by only halving the 7th hole, despite rolling in a 20-foot putt for birdie. Ogilvy battled on, however, and was only one down at the turn, before Watson kicked up a gear to birdie the 10th hole, before striking his approach to the 11th within 15 feet for a potential eagle. Ogilvy conceded the hole and attempted to regroup on the next, but a bogey put him further behind. He lost more ground when Watson eagled the 13th and put his approach to the 14th inside four feet. Ogilvy ultimately conceded the hole and the match to Bubba, who will now play J.B. Holmes for a place in the semi-final.

Holmes saw off Jason Day by 1-up in a scrappy match that saw both players make a host of mistakes. Day had arrived on the 17th hole for the first time in the tournament, holding a 1-up advantage but he made a hash of the hole, failing to reach the green in regulation and leaving himself a 40-footer to save par and the hole. He failed, and the match was all-square down the last.

Day made a cardinal error on the 18th by finding the back bunker – the last place to be – in two, and his attempt from the sand left him another 40-footer for par. Holmes had found the putting surface in two, and as Day missed his par attempt, was left with two putts for the match. Rolling his first putt inside 2-feet, Day conceded the hole and the match to bring to an end a run that had included the scalp of pre-tournament favourite, Paul Casey.

4th Round Matches:
Bubba Watson v J.B. Holmes

The Gary Player bracket will feature an all-European showdown between Ryder Cup teammates Miguel Angel Jiminez and Martin Kaymer.

Mercurial Spaniard Jiminez demolished Rory McIlroy’s conquerer Ben Crane by a 7&6 scoreline. Crane had perhaps left his game in the previous round when he thrashed the young Irishman, and had no answer to Jiminez as he quickly fell 4-down through four holes. Crane was doing his best to gift Jiminez the match, and three straight bogeys from the 8th hole left him 7-down after 11 holes. Both players halved the next two holes with birdies, leaving Jiminez – the oldest player in the field – to advance to a showdown with Kaymer.

US PGA champion Kaymer had to dig deep to see off the challenge of Hunter Mahan, but did enough to secure a 2&1 victory over the American.

Mahan was quickly out of the starting gate and 2 up through the first two hole. Kaymer fought back to square the match at the 6th hole, but was 2 down again by the time the pair had played the 12th hole. Kaymer fought back again, and the pair were tied again after the 15th hole. However, a birdie at the 16th saw the German finally in front in the match, and he closed out the win with a par on the 17th.

4th Round Matches:
Miguel Angel Jiminez v Martin Kaymer

YE Yang triumphs in China

YE Yang shrugged of the effects of a marathon 30-hour journey to claim victory in the Volvo China Open at Jinji Lake International Golf Club. Yang, who finished in a tie for 8th place in last weekend’s US Masters made his appearance in the tournament following his massive trip from the United States to China, and was always in contention.

The win gave the Korean his third European Tour title but required a battling final round to eventually edge out the chasing pack. Leading by one shot going into the final round, Yang held off strong challenges from a host of players including Rhys Davis and former champion Stephen Dodd, who was bidding to become the first player to win the event more than once.

However, hard luck story of the day perhaps belongs to Wales’ Jamie Donaldson. The Welshman had pushed Yang all the way in the final round until the 13th hole, which proved unlucky for the player. A birdie on the 12th had put Donaldson into a share of the lead with the Korean, but he recorded a double-bogey five after a nonchalant flick at a tap-in for bogey cost him dear. Despite a birdie on the 14th hole, Donaldson never really recovered from that blow and finished with back-to-back bogeys to slip back into a tie for fourth place.

Donaldson’s fellow Welshman, Rhys Davies signalled his burgeoning talent with a bogey-free round of 67 to push him into second place alongside Stephen Dodd. Davies, who captured his first Tour win since graduating from the Challenge Tour at the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco, recorded the best scores over the final two rounds of the tournament and racked up a sequence of 43 holes consecutive holes played without dropping a shot.

Dodd, who won the event in 2004, meanwhile recorded four birdies in his round of 69 but he could have finished closer to Yang if Dodd had been able to convert some of his birdie chances.

Finland’s Mikko Ilonen struggled on the damp final day and eventually finished with a round of 73 to drop back into a tie for fourth with Donaldson and Sweden’s Johan Edfors, who represented our tipster’s pick. Edfors held every chance of posting a success heading into the back nine and a pair of birdies on the 14th and 15th holes put the Swede just two behind Yang. But he couldn’t find the extra birdies he needed, and a bogey on the last cost him a share of second. Still, each-way backers of the Swede should be collecting!

Oliver Fisher, who lost his card at the end of last season, claimed a fourth consecutive top-10 finish after a closing 69 ensured seventh place.

A host of players finished together for a share of eighth place, including our second tipster’s second pick, Graeme McDowall, as well as the Asian number one, Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and world number 16, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson among others.

But it was Yang who held on in dogged fashion to record the win, despite some errant driving from the tee. Time and again, the little Korean grimaced as he watched his tee-shot and the US PGA champion can perhaps put this success down to his short game and putting. Yang showed his deftness around the greens with some superb bunker play and approaches, and his putter was red-hot from inside the ten-footer range to keep him ahead of the pack and maintain his advantage.

YE Yang makes his move in China

Korean Kim Do-hoon has taken the halfway lead after the second round of the Volvo China Open at Jinji Lake International Golf Club. Kim had shared the first round lead with Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee, and a second round of 69 ensured he maintained his advantage.

However, US PGA champion YE Yang sliced through the field to finish up just one shot behind Kim after starting the day four behind his younger countryman and Jaidee. Yang carded an impressive round of 66, which featured seven birdies but for the second day in succession dropped a shot at the 5th hole.

Yang shares second place with Jaidee, who uncharacteristically struggled with his putter enroute to a second round 70, and Welshman Jamie Donaldson. Finn Mikko Ilonen and Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal share fifth spot on nine-under par.

Corev Pavin – United States’ Ryder Cup captain for this year’s Celtic Manor clash – is handily placed on seven-under par and shares that spot with Korean duo Kim Dae-hyun and Noh Seung-yul.

Later conditions proved a little tricky for the late-starters but all three of the YGT tipster’s picks are still in the thick of the action. Johan Edfors shot a second round 71 to move to five-under par while Graeme McDowall shot 70 to move to four-under par. Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher shot a round of 71 to move to three under par.

There will be a new champion at the event, however, after defending champion Scott Strange failed to make the cut following a level-par round of 72. The cut fell at level-par, which saw the likes of Thomas Bjorn, Paul Lawrie and Robert Rock also fail to make it to the weekend’s play.

Meanwhile, last year’s runner up, Spain’s Gonzalo-Fernandez Castano crept into the weekend after a two-under par 70.

Mahan charges to Phoenix Open success

Hunter Mahan claimed only the second PGA Tour title of his career when he came from four strokes back to claim a victory in the Waste Management Phoenix Open. It was just reward for Mahan after a string of consistent tournament appearances.

The former Oklahoma State golfer got the better of a tussle with fellow Oklahoma Statesman Rickie Fowler by one shot to collect the $1.08million first prize. Mahan carded an eagle and two birdies during a late charge in the final round to card a second consecutive bogey-free round of 65 and add to his only other PGA Tour win – the 2007 Travelers Championship.

Mahan birdied the sixth and ninth holes to reach the turn at 12-under par but was still some way off the lead as he began the homeward stretch. Mahan’s charge really began on the fifteenth where, just as YE Yang had found trouble on the 17th, Mahan’s putt from eight feet for an eagle fell into the hole to put him one behind the Korean. Another birdie on the 14th put Mahan into a share of the lead and then he took the lead outright with another on the 16th before pars on the final two holes.

From there it was a case of wait-and-see as Fowler was still out on the course and in a position to overhaul the 2008 Ryder Cup player. Tour rookie Fowler, who was seeking his first win couldn’t find the necessary birdies however, and carded a 68 to finish in his second runner up spot of his short pro career with US PGA champion YE Yang back in third. Fowler was bidding to become the youngest winner of a Tour event since Tiger Woods in 1996.

YE Yang had led the tournament after a blistering final round catapulted the Korean up the leaderboard; but his challenge came unstuck after an attempt to drive the green at the 17th hole was hooked into the greenside lake and Yang failed to get up-and-down for par. A par at the last gave the Korean a round of 65 and a 14-under total.

The putts wouldn’t drop for overnight leader Brandt Snedeker who fell away dramatically as he stumbled to a final round 78 as Charles Howell III, Mathew Goggin and Chris Couch all closed with three-under 68s to share fourth place at 13-under-par 271.

Camilo Villegas, who had equalled the course record on his opening round and tied the lead at half-way finished at eleven-under par with five other players following a closing 71 while our pick, JB Holmes, never threatened the top of the leaderboard and eventually finished seven-under par.

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