Luke Donald
Luke Donald has reached his first Accenture Match Play semifinal after a dominating performance in which he rolled in four putts of 11 feet or longer in beating Ryan Moore 5 and 4 in Saturday morning’s quarterfinal.
Donald also threw in a hole out from 67 feet to win the sixth hole. He even added another hole-out with a chip on the 11th hole for birdie, although he lost the hole to a Moore eagle.
“I got off to a great start, got off early, and I think that chip in on 6 was a big turning point,” Donald said. “It looked like a tough up and down.”
In all, Donald posted seven birdies against just one bogey. Moore, meanwhile, had a rollercoaster morning, with one eagle, two birdies and four bogeys. Moore carded just five bogeys combined in his first three matches.
The Englishman will now play Matt Kuchar in Saturday afternoon’s semifinals. Kuchar, who finished second in the FedExCup last year, beat Y.E. Yang 2 and 1.
“Matt obviously had a great year last year and has continued this year,” Donald said. “He’s played strongly, I’m excited to be there, and hopefully I can continue the good work.”
Donald had never made it past the third round in six previous appearances here, but he’s been arguably the most consistent performer through the first four rounds here. He has yet to trail in any of his four matches and has led for all but four of the holes he’s played this week.
“He played great,” Moore said. “I knew I had to play well against him. I just made him a little too comfortable.”
Donald opened the match much like the previous two days, with a birdie at the first when he found the cup with an 11-foot, 11-inch putt.
Moore gave away the par-3 third when he found the water, but gained the hole back with a birdie at the fourth. Two holes later, Donald holed out with a chip-in from the fairway to go 2 up. Two holes later when he rolled in a birdie putt from 11 feet, 10 inches at the par-5 8th, he went 3 up and never looked back.
Moore didn’t help his cause by also giving away the ninth hole when he missed a four-foot putt for par. Another birdie putt from Donald at the 10th, this time from 11 feet, 9 inches, put him 5 up.
Moore won the 11th with an eagle, even though Donald produced his second chip-in of the match from the rough after he chunked it out of the bunker.
And just for good measure, Donald denied Moore a win at the 12th hole by saving par with a putt from 11 feet.
“I didn’t put too much pressure on him early on and kind of gave a couple of holes to him,” Moore said. “You can’t give holes away. I did that a couple of times early and let him pad his lead and from there, I think he just cruised.”
On the 14th hole, Donald then closed out the match with a birdie putt from just inside nine feet.
“The short game has been good, and it has been tidy,” Donald said. “I haven’t given up too many holes this week. I made a bunch of birdies, too.”
Mike McAllister
