The prospect of an all-European Tour Member final of the World Golf Championships – Accenture Match Play remained a possibility as Australian’s Peter Lonard and Adam Scott moved through to the semi-finals at the La Costa Resort & Spa in California.
Scott recovered from an uncertain start to beat American veteran Jay Haas 2 and 1 to set up a mouthwatering semi-final with Number One seed and favourite Tiger Woods, while Lonard beat fellow European Tour Member and the 2000 champion Darren Clarke on the last green and will now face US Ryder Cup player David Toms, after the 2001 US PGA Champion beat Jerry Kelly 4 and 3.
All week Scott has struggled on the front nine of the La Costa layout and against Haas it was no different, the 22 year old Australian finding himself one down through seven holes.
But Scott, a double winner on The European Tour in 2002, turned the match around in a spectacular three hole stretch, birdieing the ninth and tenth before eagling the 11th to move into a three hole lead from where he never looked back.
“Jay played well coming in and got me back to two up a couple of times but I was pretty solid coming in and didn’t make many mistakes,” said Scott, who practiced earlier in the week with Woods and who knows exactly what to expect.
“I guess the whole show which comes along with Tiger, I’ll have to try and block that out and not worry about it and get on with my game. I know I can hit it out there with Tiger, I was hitting it past him in practice, so maybe I can get the edge on him.”
Lonard looked to be in trouble against Clarke when he slumped three down after eight holes, but he mounted a strong recovery against the Irishman and turned the match around, eventually ending matter on the home green.
Clarke, looking to repeat his victory at the venue in 2000, was naturally upset to have exited the tournament.
“Obviously I’m disappointed to lose, nobody likes to lose, and especially from the position I was in but I made a mistake on the ninth, I got ahead of myself there when I was three up and started to think about going four up.
“I made a mistake, he made a very good up and down from the trap and got back to two down and then he made a great birdie on the 11th to get back to one down and as I said yesterday, momentum is a huge thing in match play and I just couldn’t get it back after that.
“It was a good week overall but in saying that I gave Pete a few chances and he made the most of them so I can’t complain. Certainly on the back nine, Pete played better golf than I did and deserved to win.”
Quarter-final results (seedings in brackets)
Tiger Woods (USA) (1) beat Scott Hoch (USA) (25), 5 and 4
Adam Scott (Aus) (44) beat Jay Haas (USA) (61), 2 and 1
Peter Lonard (Aus) (31) beat Darren Clarke (N.Ire) (26) 2 holes
David Toms (USA) (6) beat Jerry Kelly (19) (USA) 4 and 3
Semi-final line-up
Woods v Scott
Lonard v Toms
