Day 4 Notes – WGC - Accenture Match Play Championship
Tiger Woods improves his record to 30-6 in his ninth year playing this event. Woods is 20-4 against the International players and 10-2 against his fellow Americans. Woods’ two losses against his countrymen were against Jeff Maggert in the quarterfinals of the inaugural event in 1999 and Chad Campbell in the third round in 2006. Woods has four losses against International players in this event, three times to an Australian - to Peter O’Malley in the first round in 2002 and twice to Nick O’Hern (2005, 2007) -- and then Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke in the finals of 2000, 4 and 3.With his victory on Friday, Tiger Woods has won 22 of his last 25 matches.
Stewart Cink, who is making his first appearance in the final match at the Accenture Match Play Championship, is looking for his first victory since winning the 2004 Bridgestone Invitational (formerly the NEC Invitational). In 2004, Cink led the tournament wire-to-wire at Firestone Golf Club and recorded an impressive four-stroke victory over Tiger Woods and Rory Sabbatini. Cink is making his 22nd appearance in a World Golf Championships event and has seven top-10s. Cink is looking to end his 3-_ year winless drought and move into the winner’s circle for the first time out of his last 86 starts on TOUR.
Should Stewart Cink win the 36-hole final match, he would become only the third golfer to win more than one World Golf Championship event. This is the 27th individual World Golf Championship series event and the 10th Match Play event; there have been eight CA Championships (formerly the American Express Championship) and nine Bridgestone Invitational (formerly the NEC Invitational). Amazingly, Tiger Woods has won more than half (14) of these events. Darren Clarke is the only other golfer to have won more than one, the 2000 Accenture Match Play Championship (beating Tiger Woods in the final) and the 2003 NEC Invitational. Cink won the 2004 Bridgestone Invitational (formerly the NEC Invitational).
In Henrik Stenson’s last 13 matches, he has gone to the 18th hole 10 times.
Last year on this week, Justin Leonard was No. 194th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Currently he is 52nd on the OWGR. In the last 12 months he has won the 2007 Valero Texas Open, finished second twice – 2008 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and 2007 Buick Open and finished in the top-10 eight times, including a T9 at the 2007 Bridgestone Invitational.
It is the ninth time in the 10-year history of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship that there has been an American in the championship match. The only other countries represented in the final match: Sweden (Henrik Stenson, 2007 and Pierre Fulke, 2001), Northern Ireland (Darren Clarke, 2000) and Australia (Geoff Ogilvy, 2006 and 2007).
Americans in the championship match by year:
1999 Jeff Maggert and Andrew Magee
2000 Tiger Woods
2001 Steve Stricker
2002 Kevin Sutherland and Scott McCarron
2003 Tiger Woods and David Toms
2004 Tiger Woods and Davis Love III
2005 David Toms and Chris DiMarco
2006 Davis Love III
2007 NONE
2008 Tiger Woods and Stewart Cink
How the top seeds fared in the Quarterfinals and the Semifinals on Saturday:
Winners (current OWGR) in quarterfinals:
No. 1 Tiger Woods (1) def. No. 3 K.J. Choi (8), 3 and 2
No. 4 Henrik Stenson (12) def. No. 10 Woody Austin (36), 2 up
No. 13 Justin Leonard (52) def. No. 3 Vijay Singh (11), 1 up
No. 6 Stewart Cink (22) def. No. 4 Angel Cabrera, 3 and 2
Winners (current OWGR) in semifinals:
No. 1 Tiger Woods (1) def. No. 4 Henrik Stenson (12), 2 up
No. 6 Stewart Cink (22) def. No. 13 Justin Leonard (52), 4 and 2
Most Consecutive Matches won at the Accenture Match Play Championship
| Player | consecutive | years |
| Tiger Woods | 13 | 2003-05 |
| Geoff Ogilvy | 11 | 2006-07 |
| Henrik Stenson | 10 | 2007-08* (current) |
| David Toms | 8 | 2005-06 |
| Kevin Sutherland | 8 | 2002-03 |
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