When Martin Kaymer went down 4 and 3 to Matt Kuchar at the 2012 Accenture Match Play Championships on Friday, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood were suddenly left as the only 1-seeds remaining in the tournament. If the two stars can get past their quarterfinal opponents Saturday, they will tee off against each other Sunday for the right to go the final. With that said, neither golfer is looking past their upcoming opponents.
Accenture Match Play 2012 Bracket: Rory McIlory And Lee Westwood Could Meet In Semifinals
“Obviously Lee is playing well at the minute, had a great chance to win in Dubai. And for the most part has looked very strong this week,” McIlroy said Friday following his 3 and 1 win. “We both have to win our matches tomorrow. And I’m going to have a very difficult opponent in either John Senden or Sang-Moon Bae. I’ve played with both guys before. They’re both great players, great ball-strikers. I just have to concentrate on tomorrow’s match and see what happens after that.”
Westwood was equally cautious to think about the attention that a showdown with McIlroy would garner. He noted that no matter how well he plays on Saturday--and he is playing very well--he has no control over how his opponent performs.
“I’m just happy to be looking for a different restaurant for Friday night, that’s where my sights are set. Yeah, I don’t think you can look that far ahead,” Westwood said. “I had a little chuckle watching The Golf Channel on Wednesday morning and listening to them make all their predictions and things like that. I don’t think they got many right. So it’s virtually impossible. All you can do -- all I can do is keep playing the way I’m playing and do that against whichever opponent I’ve got in front of me. You can’t control what your opponent does, if he comes out and shoots 62, I’m going home.”
Westwood will tee off against Martin Laird of Scotland beginning at 2:20 p.m ET. McIlroy will face Sang-Moon Bae starting at 2:05 p.m. McIlory and Bae were paired together at the 2009 Korean Open, which Bae ended up winning.
"He's been very impressive this week taking down [Ian] Poulter and Charl [Schwartzl], two of the best players," McIlroy said. "Especially Poult is one of the best match players, and Charl, obviously, a Major champion. So he's had a great week so far. And we'll see what happens tomorrow."
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