Paul Lawrie sets up last-16 clash with Bjorn

PAUL Lawrie played “horrible” but still managed to succeed where the likes of top seed Martin Kaymer and former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel both failed in reaching the last 16 in the Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin in Spain.

After beating Swede Peter Hanson in his opening group game on Thursday, the Aberdonian finished all square with Camilo Villegas yesterday morning before the Colombian also beat Hanson in the afternoon.

It meant Lawrie and Villegas tied for top spot in the Greg Norman Pool on three points, but the Scot won a play-off between the pair and now faces Dane Thomas Bjorn in the opening round of the straight knock-out phase this morning.

Two down with seven to play earlier in the day against the three-time PGA Tour winner, Lawrie won three holes in a row from the 12th before Villegas birdied the short 17th to go all square. Lawrie hit the hole with his birdie putt at the last before the Colombian missed from slightly closer for the win.

“Both of us played horrible golf,” admitted Lawrie. “It was poor stuff, to be honest, but it was a tricky wind and the greens are quick. You don’t want to play poorly but when you do that and go through I’ll take it.”

On his next test, the 43-year-old Scot added: “I need to get some ball-striking going. Everything else is fine. I hit some nice putts today that didn’t go in.”

Justin Rose, meanwhile, piled on the agony for Darren Clarke with a 6 and 4 drubbing. Open champion Clarke had also lost to Robert Rock earlier in the day – that at least went to the final green – and so made yet another early exit from a tournament.

The 43-year-old has yet to survive a halfway cut this season and has still to record his first top-10 finish since his memorable triumph at Sandwich last summer.

Rose, in contrast, has not gone beyond the 14th hole in either of his games – he crushed Rock 7 and 6 – and afterwards expressed empathy for Clarke’s plight. He, after all, endured 21 successive missed cuts in the year that followed his fourth-place finish as a 17-year-old amateur in the 1998 Open.

Rose, whose next opponent Nicolas Colsaerts won a play-off against Schwartzel to reach the last 16, said: “We’ve all been through ebbs and flows. He was in great spirits considering and very complimentary to me. He’s got it in perspective I guess – it’s tough, but it’s not like he’s checked out. He still wants to be a great player.

“He obviously eluded to the fact that nothing has gone terribly right (on the course) since winning The Open, but the only thing to hopefully draw on is his family life (Clarke married again last month) and he’s really enjoying being back in Northern Ireland. You can see it still hurts, but he’s a good enough player that hopefully it will turn round.”

Defending champion Ian Poulter, Rose’s great friend and Ryder Cup partner in 2008, is still going strong. After Australian John Senden lost to both Poulter and 21-year-old Tom Lewis, the only thing at stake when the two Englishmen clashed was who topped the group. Both were already through. Poulter won it 4 and 3 to set up a meeting with big-hitting Alvaro Quiros, while Lewis, who won the Portugal Masters last October in only his third start as a professional, is also up against Spanish opposition in Sergio Garcia.

Biggest shock of the day came when Hull’s Richard Finch, 218th in the world, knocked out Kaymer when the world No 9 missed a three-footer on the last. There was no reprieve for Kaymer because he had also lost to Rafael Cabrera-Bello.