Accenture Match Play: Semifinal notebook

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MARANA, Ariz. -- If extra holes are required to determine a winner in either the Championship Match or the Third-Place Match on Sunday, players will play the 493-yard, par-4 10th hole at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain first. If still undecided after 19 holes, matches will continue on the back-nine rotation.

Attendance:
Monday: 5,570 (5,000 in 2008)
Tuesday: 7,610 (7,500 in 2008)
Wednesday: 13,620 (12,500 in 2008)
Thursday: 14,120 (12,500 in 2008)
Friday: 11,130 (12,500 in 2008)
Saturday: 7,640 (7,500 in 2008)

• Geoff Ogilvy closed out his 4-and-2 victory over Stewart Cink by winning four consecutive holes -- Nos. 13, 14, 15 and 16 -- going birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, through that stretch of holes.

• Paul Casey and Ross Fisher halved hole No. 14 with double-bogey 6s and hole No. 15 with birdie 3s. Fisher won No. 16 with a birdie 2 to get back to 1-down with two to play before Casey closed out the match, 2 and 1, with a birdie 3 at the 17th hole.

Updated all-time Accenture Match Play Championship Records for four remaining players:

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• Neither one of the two matches went extra holes in the semifinals for the fifth year in a row. Only twice before has a Semifinal match gone extra holes. In 2004, Davis LoveIII defeated Darren Clarke in 21 holes, and in 2003, Tiger Woods defeated Adam Scott in 19 holes. Nine matches have gone extra holes so far this week, bringing the all-time total to 84.

• Casey and Ogilvy are both Scottsdale, Ariz., residents and both play out of Whisper Rock Golf Club. The pair made a visit to The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club (Dove Mountain) two weeks before the tournament for a practice round. Casey attended Arizona State University, where he broke the scoring record held by Tiger Woods (18 under par) with a 23-under-par 265 in the 2000 Pac-10 Championships. Other records he has broken include the scoring average for Arizona State University previously held by Phil Mickelson.

• Ogilvy is currently third in career money earned at the Accenture Match Play Championship with $2,140,000. Now that Ogilvy has advanced to the Championship Final he is guaranteed to earn a minimum of $850,000, and pass David Toms, moving into second place on the list. Woods is the No. 1 money earner in this event with $4,712,500, including the $95,000 he earned after being eliminated by Tim Clark in the second round.

• Ogilvy is one of just nine players who have earned more than $4 million in World Golf Championship events. Of the eight players ahead of Ogilvy on this list, all but Henrik Stenson (15) have played 24 events or more. This is just the 10th WGC event Ogilvy has contested. Woods leads the money earned in WGC events with $20,920,833 from 30 starts.

• Casey has never been down at any stage in each of his matches thus far. He has lost a total of just 12 holes. Ogilvy hast lost a total of 17 holes.

• The only other time the Championship Match has featured two International players was 2007, when Stenson defeated Ogilvy, 2 and 1.

• 2006 Accenture Match Play Championship winner and 2007 runner-up Ogilvy (No. 8), is the highest-ranked seed to survive. Casey, his opponent in the Championship Final, is ranked No. 23.

• Casey's victory over Fisher marks the first time in tournament history that an Englishman has reached the final. No English player has ever won a World Golf Championship event.

• Before Saturday afternoon, Ian Poulter was the only English player to reach the semifinals (2005), when he was defeated by Toms, 3 and 2. Poulter was then defeated by Retief Goosen (20 holes) in the Third-Place Match.

• Cink (No. 21) defeated Richard Sterne (No. 44) in the first round. Since then, Cink has defeated opponents ranked higher than him -- Lee Westwood (No. 12) in Round 2, Mickelson (No. 5) in Round 3, Ernie Els (No. 13) in the quarterfinals -- until the semifinals, where he was defeated 4 and 2 by Ogilvy (No. 8).

• The lowest-ranked player to survive the semifinals is Casey (No. 23), who defeated Fisher (No. 35), 2 and 1. The lowest-ranked player to win the Accenture Match Play Championship was No. 62 Kevin Sutherland in 2002. No. 55 Steve Stricker prevailed in 2001, while Ogilvy was ranked 52nd when he won in 2006.

• Breakdown of 2009 field of 64 players:
To start the first round:

International players: 47
United States players: 17
Countries represented: 19 (ties the most in tournament history -- 2006)
Largest international contingent: Australia and South Africa, 8 each

After the Semifinal round:
International players: 2 of the 3 players won their semifinals match
United States players: Cink lost his semifinals match
Countries represented: 2 of the 19 still in the field

• Winners of the two semifinals matches by country (Number of players initially in the field in parentheses)
England (7) Paul Casey Australia (8) Geoff Ogilvy

• This is the third time Ogilvy has advanced to the Championship Final (defeated Davis Love III in 2007/lost to Stenson in 2006). Ogilvy is the only Australian player to reach the Championship Final in tournament history.

• The largest margin of victory on Saturday morning was 4 and 3, recorded by Casey over Sean O'Hair. The other three Quarterfinals matches all finished with a 2-and-1 result.

• The semifinals went true to form with no "upsets," with Casey (No. 23) over Fisher (No. 35): and Ogilvy (No. 8) over Cink (No. 21).

• First-time Participants:
Of the 12 first-time participants, only Fisher advanced to the semifinals. Fisher joins Jeff Maggert (1999), Toru Taniguchi (2001), Pierre Fulke (2001), Scott McCarron (2002), Peter Lonard (2003) and Ogilvy (2006) as the only players in tournament history to advance beyond the quarterfinals in their first start. No one (other than Jeff Maggert in the first event in 1999) has won the Accenture Match Play in his first start. Updated all-time Accenture Match Play Championship win leaders: No. Player W-L 1 Tiger Woods 32-7 2 David Toms 23-8 3 Davis Love III 19-9 4 Stewart Cink 17-9 5 Geoff Ogilvy 16-2 6 Phil Mickelson 15-10 7 Darren Clarke 14-7 8 Adam Scott 13-8 9 Retief Goosen 12-10 Justin Leonard 12-11 Chris DiMarco 12-7 Ian Poulter 12-7 Henrik Stenson 12-3

Geoff Ogilvy
Ogilvy, the lone Australian left in the field, continues his stellar play. Now with a 16-2 record, Ogilvy has the highest winning percentage (88.8 percent) of any player in the event history with more than 10 wins on his resume. Second is Tiger Woods (32-7, 82.05 percent), followed by David Toms (23-8, 74.2 percent). Ogilvy is now 3-3 in semifinals matches. He has played 86 holes through the semifinals this year. At the same stage in 2006 when he won the title, Ogilvy had played 95 holes.

Paul Casey
Casey was defeated by Ogilvy, 5 and 4, in the 2007 quarterfinals. Ogilvy lost the Championship Match to Stenson, 2 and 1, that year. Casey's semifinal match with Fisher represented the first all-England semifinal in history.

Luke Donald
After experiencing discomfort in his surgically repaired wrist Friday and conceding his third-round match to Ernie Els, Luke Donald had his wrist examined by the doctor who performed the original surgery and received good news. Dr. Andrew Weiland, of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, examined Donald Friday night and determined that the discomfort was limited to the scar tissue, not the tendon that was repaired last year.

Weiland was pleased that there was minimal swelling in the wrist and believes that treatment with anti-inflammatory medication would allow Donald to resume practicing in the next few days, and perhaps even play in next week's Honda Classic, an event he won in 2006.