Woods, Mickelson advance in Match Play
(AP)Updated: 2007-02-22 14:31 But there was that close call.
Woods pulled his tee shot into the desert on the second hole and was lucky to have a play. He hit the ball short of the green, and his pitch stayed on the front of the green some 20 feet from the hole. Henry, meanwhile, had a 12-foot birdie putt and was poised to go 1-up.
Woods made the putt and Henry missed his for a halve, although it felt like more than that to Woods.
Two holes later, Woods won with a par and never trailed.
"Hitting the ball in the desert like this, it's pot luck," Woods said. "I had a shot. More than likely, I should have been in a bush or some kind of unplayable (lie), and J.J. should have won the hole with a 4. But I got lucky, got a break and was able to make a putt."
He was 2-up until the 14th, when his 8-iron spun back within a foot of the cup for birdie. From there, it was a matter of when Henry would run out of holes.
Ames ran out of holes quickly, only this time he left the course with a smile.
Ames, who grew up in Trinidad & Tobago and now lives in Calgary, didn't even realize he had won the match after chipping in for birdie on the 11th and final hole. Then he called his wife, who was surprised to hear from him so soon.
Ames said the conversation went like this:
"You're done?" she said.
"Yeah. I played 11 holes," he replied.
"And ..."
"I won't be coming home tonight," he said.
And he said there was a simple explanation for the sudden turnaround.
"It's nice to be out of Carlsbad," Ames said. "I saw the ball going in the hole for a change, rather than bouncing."
Ames had never made it out of the first round in two previous tries, and he must have wondered whether that streak would continue when he picked up a bad cold last week in Riviera and felt miserable during his practice rounds.
The shotmaking lifted his spirits, for sure.
"I didn't know what to expect because of the way I felt," said Ames, who will face Vijay Singh in the second round. "I went through my normal routine — see a shot, hit a shot kind of thing."
Eight of the top 10 seeds advanced, although Padraig Harrington (No. 10) had to go 19 holes against Lee Westwood, and Henrik Stenson birdied two of his last three holes to knock out Zach Johnson.
Mickelson, coming off a victory at Pebble Beach and a playoff loss at Riviera, was surprised to see the pins tucked on the corners, especially on smooth greens that dropped off at the edges.
"I thought they were ridiculous," Mickelson said. "But everyone had to play them, so it was fair. You couldn't play aggressively. You had to play defensively away from the flags."
That worked out for him, though, when he holed a 35-foot birdie on the 13th hole to square the match, then won the 14th and 16th with pars and hung on for the victory.
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