Belgium’s golfing bomber, Nicolas Colsaerts is the first player through to the last 16 after a stunning 4 & 2 victory over Ryder Cup colleague, Justin Rose in the second round of the WGC – Accenture Match-Play Championship.
The reigning Volvo Match-Play champion is on target to become the first golfer ever to hold both Match-Play titles with crushing demolition of the current World No. 6 ranked Rose.
Colsaerts, who is competing in the Arizona event for a first occasion, may have lost the first hole to a bogey to Rose but after winning the second with a birdie, he was never behind.
The Belgium, with Australian caddy Brian Nilsson calling the shots, won the fifth, sixth and seventh holes with birdies and while Colsaerts lost the ninth and 10th holes to Rose birdies, he then shut Rose out the match with birdies at the 12th, 14th and 16th holes.
And now after the bitter disappointment of missing the cut in last week’s Northern Trust Open, Colsaerts has stormed his way into the third round of the $US 8.75m event defeating American Bill Haas 5 & 4 and now accounting for Rose, who next fortnight tees up on the Trump course at Doral as defending champion in the WGC – Cadillac Championship.
Nicolas Colsaerts the first player into the last 16 after his crushing victory over Justin Rose. (Photo – www.europeantour.com)
Colsaerts, who also beat Rose last year in the Volvo World Matchplay, feels his length will be an advantage this week.
“There’s a couple of corners, a couple of carries I can take on, and if it works out, I have much shorter irons into greens than some of the other guys,” he said.
“So if I’m on, I’m going to give myself a lot of birdie tries. Obviously match play you want to hole a few. And if that happens, you’re probably going to come out on top.”
SCORECARD STATS: Colsaerts made six birdies and one bogey. Rose made four birdies, an eagle and five bogeys.
HOLES WON: Colsaerts won seven holes. Rose won three holes.
QUICK RECAP: There were a lot of red numbers posted in this match as Colsaets took down his Ryder Cup teammate. Interestingly, though, the only eagle was made by Rose, who gives up about 17 yards off the tee to Colsaerts, the No. 2-ranked player in driving distance on TOUR this year at 307 yards.
Rose drew first blood when Colsaets made his only bogey of the day at the first hole. But the Belgian evened the match with a 6-foot birdie putt on the second hole and never trailed again.
Colsaerts won three straight holes starting at No. 5 with two pars and his second birdie to take a comfortable 3-up lead. Rose then made a 14-footer for birdie at No. 9 and the 12-footer for eagle at No. 11 to get back to 1 down.
Rose made his fourth bogey of the day at No. 12, though, and Colsaerts’ lead grew. He put his approach at No. 14 to 28 inches for the 3-up advantage and won the 16th with a par to end the match.
NEXT OPPONENT: Matt Kuchar, who beat Sergio Garcia 2 up in the second round.
