Golf Betting: Accenture Match Player Bracket

Lee Westwood came into the Accenture Match Play Championship with the pressure of being the #1 seed in the Player bracket, and in his first-round match against Chris Wood he may have started out things with some opening jitters, bogeying the first hole, but he came back rather easily,  passing Wood after the sixth hole and never looking back. that's not to say he cruised all the way. In fact, Wood drew to within on hole after eleven holes, but Westwood eventually closed things out on the 17th. Westwood, who is perhaps the best player to have never won a major, described his play as "steady."

Nick Watney, the 8th seed, had an eagle at the 14th hole, which kind of typified his day, as won 4 and 3 over Yuta Ikeda of Japan, in a match between players who were making their first Accenture Match Play appearances. Ernie Els, the two-time U.S. Open champion, got out to an early lead against Ryan Moore and just trounced him. Moore won only the fourth hole, as he learned a painful lesson against the #4 seed from South Africa, who demonstrated that he might be difficult to deal with.

The same goes for 5th-seed Retief Goosen, another South African, who beat Denmark's Soren Hansen 3 and 2 in what was a satisfying match for the two-time U.S. Open champion. The reigning PGA champion, Y.E. Yang, had to make something of a comeback to turn away another Dane, Soren Kjeldsen, who tied for sixth place in last year's PGA Championship. His big moment came on the 14th, when he holed out from 152 yards for an eagle, then followed that with a birdie.

Alexander Noren, the 14th-seed, was dead even with #3 Geoff Ogilvy after six holes, but he was blitzkrieged after that, as Ogilvy won 7 and 5 in what was the most one-sided match of any of the first-round Player bracket clashes. Dustin Johnson, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for the second straight year on Sunday, perhaps got caught reading his press clippings. Johnson had to concede the first four holes, and though he got to within two holes at one point, he did not have enough to overcome 6th-seed Camilo Villegas.

Henrick Stenson came into this event with a #2 seed and some high hopes. However, he also came with the flu, and after playing the first hole, he essentially threw in the towel because he was just too sick to continue. The default winner, 15th-seed Ben Crane, felt bad about that but went ahead and played the course anyway.

Stenson, who won the Accenture Match Play title in 2007, later revealed to the Golf Channel that the reason he played that one hole instead of just conceding the match from the beginning was that he wanted this event to count toward the 15 minimum tournaments he needs to retain his membership on the PGA Tour, which he is playing this year for the first time.

Form pretty much held up in the first round matches, with the higher seed winning every one of them except the Stenson concession.

Watney pulled off a major upset in second-round play, holding off a big charge from #1-seed Westwood to register a 2 and 1 win with the help of birdies on the 14th and 15th. South African legends hooked up in a second round match when Goosen beat Els in a struggle that extended into the second overtime hole. Els made great clutch putts on the 18th and 19th holes, but his luck ran out, as Goosen nailed an approach and holed out.