Updated all-time Accenture Match Play Championship Records for four remaining players (* indicates player who made it to the quarter finals last year; # indicates player who is in the quarterfinals for the first time in their career):
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None of the four matches went extra holes in the Quarterfinals for the third year in a row: Nine matches have gone extra holes so far this week, bringing the total to 84 for Accenture Match Play Championship history.
The 2006 Accenture Match Play Championship winner and 2007 runner-up, Geoff Ogilvy (No. 8), is the highest-ranked seed to survive.
Geoff Ogilvy is currently third in career money earned at the Accenture Match Play Championship with $2,140,000. Now that Ogilvy has advanced to the Semifinals he is guaranteed to earn a minimum of $490,000, which would leave him just $5,000 behind David Toms. If Ogilvy fails to advance to the finals, but wins the Third-Place Match, he will pass Toms and move into second-place on the list. Tiger Woods is the No. 1 money earner at the Accenture Match Play Championship with $4,712,500, including the $95,000 he earned after being eliminated by Tim Clark in the second round.
Geoff Ogilvy is one of just nine players who have earned more than $4 million in World Golf Championship events. Of the eight players ahead of Ogilvy on this list, all but Henrik Stenson (15) have played 24 events or more. This is just the 10th WGC event Ogilvy has contested. Tiger Woods leads the money earned in WGC events with $20,920,833 from 30 starts. Padraig Harrington has the most number of starts in WGC events with 35 ($2,774,633).
Paul Casey has played a total of 63 holes through the completion of the Quarterfinal round. He has lost just 10 holes during that period -- the least number of the four players to reach the Semifinals.
The lowest-ranked player to survive the Quarterfinals is Ross Fisher (No. 35), who defeated Justin Leonard (No. 27), 2 and 1. The lowest-ranked player to win the Accenture Match Play Championship:
No. 62, Kevin Sutherland, 2002
No. 55, Steve Stricker, 2001
No. 52, Geoff Ogilvy, 2006
Breakdown of 2009 field of 64 players:
To start the first round:
International players: 47
United States players: 17
Countries represented: 19 (ties the most in tournament history -- 2006)
Largest international contingent: Australia and South Africa, 8 each
After the Quarterfinal round:
International players: 3 of the 5 players won their Quaterfinals match
United States players: 1 of the 3 players won their Quarterfinals match
Countries represented: 3 of the 19 still in the field
Largest international contingent following the Quarterfinals: 2, England
Winners of the four Quarterfinals matches by country (Number of players initially in the field in parentheses)
England (7)
Paul Casey, Ross Fisher
Australia (8)
Geoff Ogilvy
United States (17)
Stewart Cink
Before Saturday afternoon's Semifinals, Ian Poulter was the only English player to reach the Semifinals of the Accenture Match Play Championship (2005), when he was defeated by David Toms 3 and 2. Poulter was then defeated by Retief Goosen (20 holes) in the Third-Place Match.
This is the third time Geoff Ogilvy, from Australia, has advanced to the Semifinals (2007/06). Other Australian players to reach the Semifinals include Stephen Leaney (2004), Adam Scott (2003) and Peter Lonard (2003). Leaney lost to Tiger Woods (2 and 1) and was then defeated by Darren Clarke (2-up) in the Third-Place Match. Scott lost to Tiger Woods in 19 holes while Lonard lost to David Toms (1-up). Scott defeated Lonard (1-up) in the Third-Place Match.
The largest margin of victory on Saturday morning was 4 and 3, recorded by Paul Casey over Sean O'Hair. The other three Quarterfinals matches all finished with a 2 and 1 result.
There were two "upsets" in the Quarterfinals: Ross Fisher (No. 35) over Justin Leonard (No. 27); and Stewart Cink (No. 21) over Ernie Els (No. 13).
| History of upsets | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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First-time Participants:
Of the 12 first-time participants at the 2009 Accenture Match Play Championship, only Ross Fisher advanced to the Semifinals.
Ross Fisher joins Jeff Maggert (1999), Toru Taniguchi (2001), Pierre Fulke (2001), Scott McCarron (2002), Peter Lonard (2003) and Geoff Ogilvy (2006) as the only players in tournament history to advance beyond the quarterfinals in their first start at the Accenture Match Play Championship.
No one (other than Jeff Maggert in the first event in 1999) has won the Accenture Match Play Championship in their first start.
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FIRST-TIME PARTICIPANT WINNERS
England's Ross Fisher (No. 35) defeated USA's Justin Leonard (No. 27), 2 and 1.
FIRST-TIME PARTICIPANT LOSERS
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy (No. 16) lost to AUS's Geoff Ogilvy (No. 8), 2 and 1.
| Updated all-time Accenture Match Play Championship win leaders: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Stewart Cink
Cink will face Geoff Ogilvy in a potential Presidents Cup preview match. The two have never squared off in individual match-play competition at either the Accenture Match Play Championship or The Presidents Cup, however, Cink teamed with Lucas Glover in the four-ball format at the 2007 Presidents Cup and were defeated (1-up) by Ogilvy and Nick O'Hern.
Cink uses a long putter. If he should go on to win this event, he would be the first to do so using a long putter in tournament history. (Kevin Sutherland used the "claw" grip when he won in 2002.)
Geoff Ogilvy
Geoff Ogilvy, the lone Australian left in the field, continues his stellar play at the Accenture Match Play Championship. Now with a 15-2 record, Ogilvy has the highest winning percentage (86.6 percent) of any player in the event history with more than 10 wins on his resume. Second is Tiger Woods (32-7, 82.05 percent), followed by David Toms (23-8, 74.2 percent).
Ogilvy is now 3-3 in Quarterfinals matches at the Accenture Match Play Championship.
Ogilvy has played 70 holes through the Quarterfinals this year. At the same stage in 2006 when he won the title, Ogilvy had played 80 holes.
Ross Fisher & Paul Casey
This All-England match represents the first time in Accenture Match Play Semifinal history.