Saturday 2 May 2015 23:21, UK
Rory McIlroy wasted no time in booking his place in the WGC Match Play last eight with a 6&5 win over Hideki Matsuyama.
The top seed McIlroy had looked set to follow Masters champion Jordan Spieth out of the tournament when he was two down after 16 holes in his final group match against Billy Horschel on Friday, but recovered to progress and set up a meeting with the also unbeaten Matsuyama.
McIlroy fired six birdies during a dominant display at Harding Park, to ease to victory with five holes to spare and set up a quarter final against England's Paul Casey
Both players opened with a birdie at the par-five first on Saturday, before McIlroy sunk a 25 foot gain at the next to take an early lead.
The world No 1 found the green at the par-five fifth in two and made a two-putt birdie from long range to double his advantage, before seeing his lead quickly extended to four after Matsuyama posted back-to-back bogeys.
McIlroy was five up after holing from 10 feet at the eighth and looked like moving further ahead after an excellent tee shot on the ninth left him a similar distance for birdie, but the Northern Irishman saw his effort pull up short as Matsuyama struck to within inches of an ace.
After holing out from a bunker to pick up another stroke at the 10th, McIlroy tapped in from five-feet two holes later to pull six clear before sealing the victory with a par at the next.
“I think I just putted better to be honest,” McIlroy told Sky Sports 4. I felt that tee to green was very similar, hit a few more iron shots close today but I putted well and took advantage of the opportunities and didn’t really let Hideki in to it.
McIlroy has stated his intention of flying to Las Vegas to watch the eagerly-anticipated clash between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, but admits that may now not happen.
“It doesn’t look likely, we’ll have to wait and see,” McIlroy added. “I’ll have to play even better this afternoon than I did this morning to have a chance and obviously this (the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship) has to take priority over everything else.
“We’ll see what happens this afternoon, there are two tickets there. One of which will go to a good friend of mine, the other one we’ll just have to wait and see!
“There is a (plane) slot out of San Francisco getting in to Vegas but we’ll see if I can make it or not.”
Early progress
American Gary Woodland was the first man into the quarter-finals thanks to a 2&1 win over Marc Leishman, with another Australian his next opponent after John Senden saw off former champion Hunter Mahan with a hole to spare.
“I played well all day,” Woodland told Sky Sports 4. “I obviously played well to get three up, but Marc made some birdies on me to get it back to all square.
“I just kept telling myself I was playing good and fortunately made a good putt on 14 to give me some momentum.”
Watch the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship throughout the weekend live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
