Winners and Losers from the 2015 WGC Cadillac Match Play
The revamped WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship is in the books from TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
If you didn't catch the action, the top seed, Rory McIlroy, won the tournament and $1.5 million top prize. The Ulsterman clawed his way back from deficits in his group-stage matches and fended off difficult opponents Paul Casey and Jim Furyk before steamrolling 52nd-seeded Gary Woodland, 4 and 2.
McIlroy's joined in the winners' column by the gentleman who triumphed in the consolation match and a golfer who took an unexpected trip to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.
Who are this week's losers and the other winners?
Read on to find out.
Winner: Rory McIlroy
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Top-seeded Rory McIlroy is a winner this week. And the WGC-Cadillac Championship's organizers and the tour have to be pleased: While the final match showdown between Gary Woodland and Rory McIlroy was never really exciting, it at least had the potential to be. The same can't be said about a Danny Willett-Gary Woodland or Jim Furyk-Woodland duel.
McIlroy was steady on Sunday. After pouring it on late to beat Jim Furyk in the semifinal match, the North Ireland native put the screws to the University of Kansas alum. Woodland had a short put to cut McIlroy's lead to one up on the 13th hole. Instead, he missed and proceeded to lose the succeeding hole, effectively putting an end to his effort to topple the world No. 1.
McIlroy's most exciting match of the week was an extra-holes victory over Paul Casey in the quarterfinal round that went until dark on Saturday and necessitated a Sunday-morning finish. While he managed to beat Casey in 22 holes, he was forced to give up his tickets to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight to the gentleman you'll see in two slides.
Losers: Favorites Not Named Rory McIlroy
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In moving to a round-robin group stage for the tournament's first three days, tournament organizers hoped to add a layer of intrigue and ensure that the best golfers made it to the round of 16, minimizing the vagaries of match play.
Unfortunately, many of the best golfers in the tournament (and those with the most star power) didn't make it out of group.
Check out this list of the fallen and their Official World Golf Rank/tournament seeding:
- Jordan Spieth: 2
- Henrik Stenson: 3
- Bubba Watson: 4
- Justin Rose: 6
- Jason Day: 7
- Dustin Johnson: 8
- Adam Scott: 9
- Sergio Garcia: 10
- Jimmy Walker: 11
Winner: Lee Westwood
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Lee Westwood lost to Danny Willett 3 and 2 in the round of 16.
How is he a winner this week then?
Rory McIlroy apparently gave Westwood his ticket to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. Not a bad consolation prize! Westy tweeted, "on our way to Mayweather/Pacquiao in Vegas. Thanks for the tix@McIlroyRory."
Westwood's tweet was accompanied by a photo of himself and McIlroy's friend, Harry Diamond, aboard a private jet.
Still, it's tough to feel bad for Mr. McIlroy (even given this tweet), who was saddled with the difficult task of winning a WGC event and $1.5 million.
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Loser: The New Format
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"In my opinion.. If change in format was wanted/needed.. Makes sense to do stroke play first 3 rounds then top 16 into bracket. Agree?" Jordan Spieth tweeted following his failure to make the round of 16 while going 13 under across his three group stage matches.
Spieth's comments were among the many from players and fans about the new tournament format, which sees each player competing in three group-stage matches. The winners of each four-man group move on to the round of 16 and the losers go home. This stands in contrast to the previous format in which all 64 players began head-to-head elimination matches immediately.
As mentioned earlier, the format, which was supposed to preserve top seeds, actually saw relatively few of them advance.
And there were other issues. As ESPN's Jason Sobel pointed out: "Perhaps the biggest issue facing this format is that 22 players were eliminated prior to Friday's round, but still had to compete. Ian Poulter, one of those 22, tweeted his disdain before he teed off."
Poulter tweeted the following: "Well I'm about to play the most pointless round of golf of my life today. Could be a thriller Hahahaha."
The bottom line: The format may still need some tweaking.
Winner: Danny Willett
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Many golf fans in the United States likely had little idea who Danny Willett was prior to the WGC-Cadillac Championship. They'll certainly have an opportunity to get acquainted with the Englishman after his third-place finish in San Francisco.
As a report by Ben Everill of Reuters indicates, the 37-year-old Englishman's finish...
"earned him enough FedEx Cup points to take up special temporary membership on the U.S. tour. ...
The 27-year-old Englishman, who is running second to McIlroy on the European Tour's Race to Dubai, can take an unlimited number of sponsors' exemptions on the U.S. tour for the remainder of the year and can earn a full card for the 2015-16 season should he want to take it up.
"
Losers: Keegan Bradley, His Caddie and Miguel Angel Jimenez
6 of 6During their Friday group-stage match at the WGC-Cadillac Championship, Keegan Bradley and Miguel Angel Jimenez got into one of the most animated disagreements you'll ever see on the PGA Tour.
At issue? Originally, at least, Jimenez (likely as a bit of gamesmanship) exercised his match play right to challenge his opponent's drop. This led to a mild disagreement between the two, which escalated further after Bradley's caddie became involved.
The Spaniard then, apparently, told Bradley's caddie to "shut up," at which point Bradley became rather unhinged.
Watch the video above and apply your own interpretation of the situation.
However, regardless of whatever was said, the entire incident was an exercise in less-than-gentlemanly conduct by all involved, and none of the parties looks any better for his behavior in a largely meaningless match.
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