Tiger Woods vs savant Stenson, Stewart Cink vs. longshot Leonard in World Match Play semifinals

MARANA, Ariz. (Feb. 23, 2008) - The highest-rated player Tiger Woods has played at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship turned out to be one of his easiest wins. Tiger took out K.J. Choi 3-and-2 in this morning’s quarterfinals, taking over a match that was all square heading into the back nine by winning three of the next four holes.

That pits Woods against the defending champ Henrik Stenson - who’s a match play savant that the Dustin Hoffman character in Rain Main could appreciate. Stenson beat Woody Austin 2-up in the quarterfinals, kicking a lot of the tournament’ character to the curb in the process. (Tiger’s now one-up on Stenson through three holes).

The other semifinal, the one right behind with about a fifth of the gallery, has Stewart Cink facing off against Justin Leonard. Leonard is the big surprise here, the 51st overall seed, having eliminated Vijay Singh with a birdie on 18 after Singh had tied the match on 17. Cink made rather easy work of Angel Cabrera in the other quarter, winning 3-and-2 without ever trailing in the match.

Though at least Angel didn’t complain about being “unlucky” like Colin Montgomerie did after he was waxed by Cink a day earlier.

And no, Woods-Aaron Baddeley still does not qualify as a classic match. No matter what SportsCenter and NBC tell you.

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