Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer at WGC-Accenture
Martin Kaymer will be the new No. 1 player in the world when the next Official World Golf Rankings come out.
Will he be able to celebrate with his first World Golf Championships win?
Kaymer, the 26-year-old German, assured himself of overtaking Lee Westwood atop the world rankings by beating Bubba Watson 1 up in Saturday afternoon’s semifinals of the Accenture Match Play Championships.
Kaymer will now face Englishman Luke Donald for the title Sunday afternoon.
Kaymer will become the first German to be ranked No. 1 since Bernhard Langer spent three weeks at No. 1 when the rankings were first launched in 1986. Westwood had been ranked No. 1 for the past 17 weeks since replacing Tiger Woods at the top.
“I definitely will take a picture of that moment,” Kaymer said. “It’s a very proud moment, for me and for my family.”
But getting there wasn’t easy for the reigning PGA champion. He didn’t put away the determined Watson until he rolled in an eight-foot par putt to halve the 18th hole.
“It’s sad because I lost,” Watson said. “But I played good. I didn’t really mess up too much. He just beat me.”
Watson, 2 down going into 17, hit a terrific approach shot to six feet to birdie the hole and extend the match.
But his drive at 18 landed in a fairway bunker, and his second shot hit the front of the raised green and tumbled back off the putting surface. Kaymer had to chip from behind the green but saved the par with his clutch putt.
The match was nip and tuck the entire way, with neither player gaining more than a one-hole advantage through the first 15 holes. “It was a very hard match,” Kaymer said. “Up and down the entire round.”
Kaymer claimed the first hole with a birdie and a Watson double bogey. At that point, you wondered if the fatigue of rallying from 5 down on the back nine to beat J.B. Holmes 30 minutes earlier had worn him out.
But when Kaymer conceded the second hole after a poor tee shot, the match was quickly back to all square and the two settled into their duel after that.
On the par-5 eight hole, Watson took his first lead, winning with a birdie. But he gave back the lead two holes later with a bogey.
Kaymer won the 13th with a two-putt birdie to go 1 up, but gave that away with a bogey at the 14th.
Just as quickly, though, he regained the advantage, working out of a greenside bunker at the drivable par-4 15th for birdie while Watson was forced to take a penalty shot after a poor tee shot into the desert. Kaymer’s 13-foot putt for birdie gave him the lead for good.
At the par-3 16th, Watson’s tee shot landed past the pin in the primary rough, and he failed to get up and down for par.
