STENSON'S WIN NOT ENOUGH TO SPARK MAJESTICKS REVIVAL
Captain Henrik Stenson sealed a come-from-behind win for Majesticks GC against Fireballs in their quarter-final match of LIV Golf Team Championship in Miami, but that wasn’t enough to extend their season into the Saturday semi-finals.
Two-down after the first two holes, the Swede bounced back against the most successful European Ryder Cup player to prevail 1-up in the end.
However, the Majesticks lost the other two matches to go down 2-1. Eugenio Chacarra-Lopez was imperious with his putter and scored a 6&5 win over Sam Horsfield in the other singles match, while the all-Mexican pairing of Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz defeated the experienced English pairing of Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.
Having finished the regular season in 11th place after Jeddah, Majesticks will have one final chance to improve their standing in Sunday’s strokeplay round, which would determine their final placing between ninth and 12th place.
Stenson did not have the best start, missing the green from the fairway in the first two holes and losing to birdies from Garcia. However, there was no looking back once he found the green and his first birdie with an imperious second shot to a tight pin on the seventh hole (their third).
The 2016 Open champion and the first man to win both FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai titles in the same season, was all-square with a birdie on the par-5 10th hole, before falling back once again with a bogey on the next hole.
Stenson then won the 13th, 14th and 18th holes to go 2-up on Garcia with four holes to go. The Spaniard clawed back with a win on the first hole, but Stenson then solidly halved the remaining holes to win 1-up.
Chacarra was in fine form as he made five birdies in the 13 holes he played against Horsfield. They started on the sixth, where the Spaniard made the first of his many long putts, and he was soon 5-up after six. A birdie on the par-5 12th was the only win for the Englishman, who recently came back to competitive golf after a four-and-a-half month layoff following a hip surgery.
The one loss that would sting the Majesticks was in the foursomes. It started well when Westwood’s second shot into the par-5 10th hole set up an eagle to go 1-up, but Ancer and Ortiz held up well after that and did not lose a hole.