Hensby suffers Wentworth woe
Mark Hensby’s words came back to haunt him as he made the worst-ever start in the 42-year history of the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth.
The Australian, conqueror of Colin Montgomerie in the first round, found himself an incredible 10 down after only 16 holes against top seed Retief Goosen.
“If I play well I’ll give him a match. If not I won’t have a chance,” Hensby had said before the game.
Goosen, who crushed England’s Kenneth Ferrie eight and seven on the opening day, already holds the tournament record winning margin – 12 and 11 against Jeff Maggert last year – and had the chance to eclipse that.
But at least Hensby avoided the biggest lunchtime deficit when he won the long 18th with a birdie four to trail by “only” nine.
The world number five won the first and third with pars, then the fourth, fifth and seventh with birdies.
When Hensby bogeyed the ninth he was out in an untidy four-over-par 39 against Goosen’s 32 and after missing another green at the short 10th the Melbourne player bogeyed again and lost further ground.
Goosen needed only a par on the next as well to make the difference eight and Hensby added further bogeys on the 13th and 16th as his misery continued.
Hensby had three-putted the first and fifth and then missed putts of four, three, five, six and six feet in the space of eight holes starting at the ninth.
Even when he birdied the 12th and 17th, both par fives, his opponent matched him, but at the last, bunkered in two, Goosen missed from under four feet - after Hensby had looked as if he might concede the putt.
His own birdie-birdie finish also meant Hensby missed out on joining Bruce Devlin, Arnold Palmer, Lanny Wadkins, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Purtzer, Len Mattiace - as holders of the worst-ever round in the championship.
They all shot 78s, but while Hensby was round in 77 Goosen managed a superb 66 - for the second morning running – in the blustery conditions.
Goosen has won his last two tournaments in China and Germany and can this week take a big leap towards winning a third European Order of Merit crown.
Yet, surprisingly, he is seeking his first semi-final appearance in six attempts at the event.
Paul McGinley, meanwhile, revelled in the role of underdog in his quarter-final against Ryder Cup team-mate Luke Donald as the battle for the £1million first prize – the biggest in golf – continued.
Ranked 36th in the world against Donald’s 14th – it made them the 11th and third seeds respectively – the Dubliner quickly raced into a four-up lead and with two holes of the morning round to play was five clear.
The two are both making their debuts in the championship and had already claimed one scalp each.
Donald thrashed Bernhard Langer, the man who gave him a Ryder Cup wild card last year, seven and six, while McGinley hammered Thomas Bjorn six and five.
A bogey at the second put Donald one down and he then witnessed four successive birdies from McGinley, who holed from eight feet at the third, two-putted the long fourth, 18 feet on the 191-yard fifth and 20 feet at the next.
Donald did manage to save a half at the fourth and then made a 20-footer of his own at the seventh to narrow the gap, only to follow that with a bogey five to fall four down again.
Donald chipped in for eagle at the 12th and made a 16-foot birdie putt at the short 14th, but in between he lost the 13th to a 25-foot birdie putt and then McGinley won the 15th with a bogey five and the 383-yard 16th with a par.
New Zealand’s US Open champion Michael Campbell led Australian Steve Elkington by two after six, but then had a nightmare run to trail by five after 17.
Campbell bogeyed the seventh and eighth, could not match Elkington’s birdies at the 10th and 12th and after winning the next when his opponent double-bogeyed dropped shots at the 15th, 16th and long 17th.
In the last game of the day Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal trailed Argentina’s Angel Cabrera by one after 15.
Cabrera, the second seed who won the BMW Championship at the course in May, struck first with a birdie at the third and doubled his advantage when Olazabal bogeyed the seventh.
Olazabal hit a four-iron to one foot on the short 10th, Cabrera a six-iron to four feet on the 179-yard 14th and then the South American bogeyed the next.
