Teener slays giant killer

MARANA, Arizona – Teenage sensation Rory McIlroy did his part to put some excitement back into the Accenture Match Play Championship, advancing to the quarterfinals on Friday by crushing the player who knocked out Tiger Woods.

The same could not be said for Phil Mickelson, who failed to reach the weekend for the fifth straight year.

McIlroy, the 19-year-old from Northern Ireland who keeps adding credentials to be the next young star, built a 4-up lead after six holes and never gave Tim Clark of South Africa a chance to catch up in a 4-and-3 victory.

He was three matches away from becoming the youngest winner in the history of American professional golf.

“Tim didn’t play his best golf today – understandably,” McIlroy said. “He was probably a little flat after all that happened yesterday. And I came out and got off to quite a fast start.”

One day after Clark was practically flawless in sending Woods home early from Dove Mountain, hardly anything went right. It was the third straight time that a player who beat Woods in this tournament lost in the next round.

“It’s a big deal coming out today, but it’s tough to feel the same, and it’s tough to maybe get focused,” Clark said. “You go around with him and it’s tough to come out the next day and get into the battle again.”

The atmosphere was far more subdued than earlier in the week, when Woods made his heralded return to golf from knee surgery after an eight-month absence, only to last two rounds.

The gallery spread itself among the eight matches, and there were some entertaining ones, for sure.

Mickelson had not trailed all week until Stewart Cink ran off three straight birdies to build a 3-up lead after four holes. Mickelson rallied to square the match twice, and both times let it get away.

He hit his tee shot into a desert bush on the 15th hole and fell behind, then tied it on the 16th when Cink missed the green. But on the next hole, Mickelson’s third shot from a desert waste area sailed over the gallery, and he missed a 4-foot bogey putt to lose the hole. His last chance was a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole, which missed below the cup.

“The wheel sort of came off for both of us,” Cink said. “It was a case of ‘Who doesn’t want to win this match, or who does?’ And we took a long time to figure that out.” (AP)