Day, Fowler, Els, Dubuisson shine

Jason Day and Ernie Els advanced with relative ease while American Rickie Fowler and Frenchman Victor Dubuisson had to fight hard to reach the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship semi-finals in Marana, Arizona on Saturday.
Australian Day beat ailing South African Louis Oosthuizen 2&1 to become the first player to make the last four at Dove Mountain while veteran Els progressed with a 4&2 win over an out-of-sorts Jordan Spieth in a match where he never trailed.

Fowler booked his place with a see-sawing, one-up victory over fellow American Jim Furyk, who came from three down after 12 holes to go one up through 16 before running out of steam, and Dubuisson edged Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell one up.

“Jim started to come on pretty hard there, I just had to stay patient,” Fowler, the 53rd seed in a starting field of 64, told CBS Sports. “I forced him to make some birdies. I knew it was going to be tough for him to keep on doing that.

“I just made some good swings coming in. Obviously it’s nice to get a win, no matter how it happens.”

Day, beaten by eventual champion Matt Kuchar of the United States in last year’s semi-finals, will next face fellow 25-year-old Fowler in a battle of ‘young guns’ while the 23-year-old Dubuisson will take on South African Els, aged 44.

Dubuisson, who had never previously played matchplay golf until his debut this week in a World Golf Championships (WGC) event, rallied from two down after three holes against McDowell with five birdies over the next 12 to wrest control. “I played well today,” said world number 30 Dubuisson, who burst into the limelight by winning his maiden European Tour title at the Turkish Airlines Open in November where Tiger Woods and U.S. Open champion Justin Rose were in the field.

“I knew Graeme was going to be a tough player to beat. I didn’t watch him too much. I tried to just focus on my game and I try to make birdies.”

McDowell faced a 25-foot birdie putt at the 18th to force extra holes.