The final day of round-robin play at the Volvo World Match Play Championship saw the lone American advance to the knockout stage, while the defending champ was shown the door.
Despite an opening loss to Jonas Blixt on Wednesday, Patrick Reed rallied to win his final two matches, including a 3-and-2 victory Friday over Jamie Donaldson, to win his four-man group at London Golf Club. He will be joined in the quarterfinals by Blixt, who halved the day’s most competitive match with Paul Casey but advanced after the Englishman put his approach into the water on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff.
Graeme McDowell’s week was the polar opposite of Reed’s, as the Ulsterman won his opening match and then lost his next two, including a 2-up defeat to Joost Luiten in his final match of the group stage. After winning the event a year ago, McDowell failed to make the quarterfinals as spots instead went to Luiten, the only player in the 16-man field to win each of his first three matches, and Mikko Ilonen. Ilonen, who had earlier defeated McDowell, won his final match over Alexander Levy, 1 up.
In other matches, Henrik Stenson capped off a 2-and-1 win over Thongchai Jaidee in spectacular fashion, holing a wedge for an eagle on the par-4 17th. With a 2-0-1 record, he finishes top among his group and will be joined in the quarterfinals by George Coetzee, who moves on despite a 2-and-1 loss to Francesco Molinari.
After victories in his first two matches, Victor Dubuisson was already assured a spot in the knockout stage, and he won his group despite a 2-and-1 loss to Stephen Gallacher, who was already eliminated. The second spot from Dubuisson’s group went to Pablo Larrazabal, who clipped Shane Lowry, 2 and 1, in a win-or-go-home matchup.
The results mean that English fans may have trouble finding a player to root for this weekend, as all five players from Great Britain & Ireland failed to make it out of the group stage.
The event now becomes a single-elimination affair, with Saturday’s quarterfinal matches as follows:
Patrick Reed vs. George Coetzee
Victor Dubuisson vs. Mikko Ilonen
Joost Luiten vs. Pablo Larrazabal
Henrik Stenson vs. Jonas Blixt
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