Narrow escape for Tiger

12 April 2012

Tiger Woods roared back from the brink of defeat to escape with a narrow victory in the opening round of the Accenture Match Play Championship on Wednesday.

Top seed Woods was three down with five holes left against fellow American JB Holmes, but he caught fire with his putter not a moment too soon, winning the next four holes as he reeled off three birdies, followed by an eagle at the par-five 17th.

He holed putts from progressively longer distances at each hole, starting with a 14-footer at the par-three 14th, followed by a 17-footer, a 22-footer and a 35-footer.

Woods duly halved the final hole with a par to win by a hole - much to the relief of the presenting television network, not to mention spectators holding weekly tickets.

"I was not hitting the ball very well most of the day, so I was very fortunate to be in the match," admitted Woods.

"I made three bogeys and gave him three holes, but somehow hit a good shot there at 14 and made the putt. It was one of those lucky times where everything just happened to turn my way at the right time. I'm very, very fortunate to advance to the second round."

It was a good day for the large European continent, with 10 out of 19 advancing to the second round.

Padraig Harrington built a big lead with six birdies in the first 12 holes against American Jerry Kelly, the Open champion subsequently closing it out for a four-and-three victory at Dove Mountain, another confidence-boosting performance as he works his way back to form.

Colin Montgomerie, meanwhile, did not look like the lowly 59th seed as he beat highly-rated American Jim Furyk three and two on a day when fellow British players Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Bradley Dredge also won their matches.

Spaniard Sergio Garcia, out in the day's first match, took an early lead and was never seriously threatened as he cruised to a three-and-two victory over Australian John Senden on a cool morning.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in