By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf
Writer
MARANA, Ariz. (AP)
-- In a Match Play Championship with a youthful
complexion, Rickie Fowler was dressed in matching pink shoes and shirt
when he walked onto the driving range and past his opponent, Phil
Mickelson, who looked him up and down and
smiled.
"Sophia has some shoes like that," Mickelson
said, referring to his 9-year-old daughter. "She wears them to her dance
class."
Mickelson has become somewhat of a mentor to
Fowler, so the kid knew what was coming.
Once they
got onto the course, Fowler was hotter than his choice of color at Dove
Mountain.
Fowler was 8-under par when their match
ended on the 13th hole, a 6-and-5 win that sent Mickelson to his worst
loss ever in this fickle tournament.
"I love guys
like Phil. In a way, he's taken me under his wing a bit," Fowler said.
"I love watching him play. I love playing with him. And obviously, it
was huge for me going out there and getting the job done
today."
Fowler was 5 under over the last four holes,
which included a chip-in for birdie from behind the 10th green and a
pair of eagles, the last one with a 4-iron from 232 yards that landed
just beyond a ridge and rolled so close that Mickelson conceded the
putt.
"He doesn't really have a weakness," Mickelson
said. "He really is a complete player, and he put it together
today."
Fowler had plenty of
company.
Equally impressive was Italy's teen
sensation, 17-year-old Matteo Manassero, who hit a 6-iron to 4 feet on
the 17th hole and closed out Charl Schwartzel of South Africa to
advance. Jason Day, a 23-year-old Australian, played like a veteran of
match play the way he toyed with Paul Casey in a 4-and-2
victory.
Of the final 16 players left at the
Accenture Match Play Championship, eight are under
30.
That includes Nick Watney, who steadied his
emotions over the last three holes to knock out top-ranked Lee Westwood
-- the third straight year the No. 1 seed did not make it out of the
second round. The highest seed remaining after two wild days was PGA
champion Martin Kaymer, the 25-year-old "Germanator" who had to go 20
holes to beat Justin Rose.
It hasn't been a bad week
for the Americans at this World Golf Championship. They have eight
players in the round of 16, the most in five years. The surprise is the
list of players.
Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker and Jim
Furyk were gone after the first round. Mickelson joined them on
Thursday.
Leading the way is a new cast of emerging
stars, from Fowler and Watney, to Hunter Mahan, who won three of the
last five holes to rally against Robert Karlsson.
But
this youth movement isn't about the
Americans.
Manassero keeps setting age records
wherever he goes -- the youngest to win the British Amateur, the
youngest to be low amateur at the British Open and the Masters, the
youngest to win on the European Tour.
"It's a big
sense of achievement for me," Manassero said.
He was
in control for much of his match against Schwartzel until nearly giving
it away. His tee shot on the 16th bounced off the corporate tents and
into a cactus, and the Italian felt as though he might have moved the
ball while trying to remove a loose branch. So he conceded the hole to
Schwartzel, and put it behind him quickly.
His 6-iron
on the 17th set up birdie, and Manassero closed it out with a par on
the 18th.
One youngster not invited to the party was
21-year-old Rory McIlroy, the No. 7 seed. He ran into Ben Crane, who
played perhaps his quickest round ever -- the match ended on the 11th
hole, an 8-and-7 victory.
Crane has the reputation
for slow play, although that wasn't an issue.
"We
played quick out there because he was making birdies," McIlroy
said.
U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell had no
trouble with Ross Fisher in a 4-and-2 victory, which assured he will
move ahead of Woods in the next world ranking.
"I'm
perhaps a better golfer than him in the last 12 months, but he's
definitely the greatest player that's ever lived, I think," McDowell
said. "Of course, if someone told me at some point in my career I would
be No. 3 in the world, I'd be proud of that
fact."
Kaymer, meanwhile, kept alive his chances of
going to No. 1 when he held on to beat Rose and Westwood was beaten. The
German will have to reach the championship match to go to No.
1.
Watney and Westwood halved the last three holes,
although it wasn't that simple.
The turning point
came on the par-3 16th, when Watney hit into a bunker, left it in the
bunker and blasted out to 5 feet. Westwood had two putts from 20 feet to
square the match, but knocked his first putt 3 feet by the hole. Watney
made his putt for bogey, and Westwood's par putt barely touched the
hole.
Then, Watney had a 5-foot birdie putt to win
the match on the 17th and missed, giving life to Westwood. The
Englishman had a 15-foot birdie putt to go into overtime, but it wasn't
close.
Westwood took solace in going 18 holes
"considering how badly I putted."
He has yet to
record a top-10 finish in four starts this year.
With
so much emphasis on youth, the oldest player in the field is still
alive. That would be Miguel Angel Jimenez, the 47-year-old Spaniard with
his love of cigars and red wine. Next up is Crane, who has never made
it past the third round in this tournament.
"I don't
think anyone is going, 'Wow, Ben Crane is really coming through this
bracket. Look out! Gosh, sorry you've got to play Ben Crane. Boy, tough
draw there,'" Crane said. "Rory didn't have his best day and things were
going in my favor."
Things are going well for J.B.
Holmes, too. He wasn't in the field until Tim Clark withdrew, and he
beat Ernie Els on the 18th hole.
Updated
February 24, 2011
