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February 26, 2011

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Top seeds exit Match Play

UPSETS and heavy defeats dominated the menu as top seed Lee Westwood, fourth seed Phil Mickelson and seventh-ranked Rory McIlroy tumbled out of the Match Play Championship in Arizona on Thursday.

Westwood lost one-down to American Nick Watney in the second round, left-hander Mickelson was stunned 6&5 by fellow American Rickie Fowler and Northern Irishman McIlroy was pummelled 8&7 by American Ben Crane.

Second seed Martin Kaymer of Germany survived a tight encounter with Britain's Justin Rose after 20 holes and will next meet American Hunter Mahan, a two-up winner over Swede Robert Karlsson.

In other matches, long-hitting Bubba Watson hammered fellow American Mark Wilson 6&5 while Italian teenager Matteo Manassero continued his remarkable debut at the event with a one-up win over South African Charl Schwartzel.

In many respects, the premature exit of world No. 1 Westwood did not come as a major surprise as the Englishman had never reached the third round in 11 appearances.

Mickelson, who crushed Australian Brendan Jones in Wednesday's opening round, ran into a human buzzsaw as Fowler recorded five birdies and two eagles, one of them conceded.

"I played great," the 22-year-old Fowler said after outplaying the four-times major champion. "After making bogey on three, I turned things around with two birdies. "And Phil left a couple of doors open that I took advantage of. My momentum kind of went my way from there."

 

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