Rickie Fowler took out the hottest player in the world, upsetting Jimmy Walker, 1 up, in the second round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at the Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz., on a day when the three remaining top-seeded players lost.
Neither player led by more than 1 up in the sizzling match, in which each player won three of the first six holes, but Fowler came from behind by winning the 16th hole with a birdie and the 17th with a par, before holing a six-foot par putt to halve the final hole and move on.
“I told my caddie, Joe (Skovron), let’s try to birdie the last three, make some good swings,” said Fowler, from Murrieta, whose only victory on the PGA Tour came in the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship.
“Obviously I didn’t birdie 17 and 18, but made two really good putts, along with the birdie putt on 16. It’s really more of making good putts. Definitely helped, finally got the putter to roll a couple in. Been swinging great, so give us a little confidence going into tomorrow.”
Walker has won three times during the 2013-14 season and leads the FedEx Cup bu a mile.
Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa beat Henrik Stenson of Sweden, top-seeded in the tournament and in the Bob Jones bracket, 4 and 3, although Stenson’s form has not been close to it was when he captured the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai last year.
Harris English sent Rory McIlroy, top-seeded in the Ben Hogan bracket, packing when the Northern Irishman made a double-bogey 6 on the 19th hole. McIlroy never led until making birdie on the 16th, but English, who had a 2-up lead after 13 holes, tied it up with a 19-foot birdie putt on No. 17 and hung on to advance.
Justin Rose of England, top-seeded in the Gary Player bracket, lost when Ernie Els of South Africa made a brilliant up-and-down for birdie on the 20th hole.
A day earlier, Richard Sterne beat Zach Johnson, top-seeded in the Sam Snead division, so South Africans knocked out three of the four top-seeded players.
Defending champion Matt Kuchar advanced to round three with a 1-up victory over Ryan Moore, and has won 11 of his last 12 matches in the Accenture.
Also advancing to the round of 16 were 2012 Accenture champion Hunter Mahan, Webb Simpson, Jason Dufner, Jason Day of Australia, George Coetzee of South Africa, Jordan Spieth, Jim Furyk, Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, Sergio Garcia of Spain, Victor Dubuisson of France and Bubba Watson.
