Defending champion Henrik Stenson continued his quest to emulate World Number One Tiger Woods when he moved into the quarter-finals of the WGC – Accenture Match Play at The Gallery Golf Club in Arizona.
Woods is the only player to have won the Accenture Match Play title in two successive years – in 2003 and 2004 at La Costa – and now Stenson is only three matches away from emulating the feat having moved into the last eight with a hard fought one hole victory over American Jonathan Byrd in the third round.
The Swede will be joined in the last eight at the Tucson venue by two other European Tour Members – Angel Cabrera and Vijay Singh – who beat American Steve Stricker and Australian Rod Pampling respectively.
Stenson was never behind in the match against Byrd – who had not been taken past the 14th hole in either of his opening two rounds – and made his intentions crystal clear when he eagled the opening hole to immediately move one up.
But try as he might Stenson – who had to go to the 25th in the previous round to oust Trevor Immelman – could not shake off the American until a half in par fours on the final green, after a birdie on the 17th had put him one up in the match once again.
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