Final Four Set for Volvo World Match Play Championship


South Africa's George Coetzee, Finland's Mikoo Ilonen, The Netherlands' Joost Luiten and Sweden's Henrik Stenson all won their quarterfinal matches to advance to the semis in the Volvo World Match Play Championship. The European Tour event began Wednesday at London Golf Club in Ash, England.

Coetzee, a last-minute addition after Thomas Bjorn withdrew because of injury, carded eight birdies to get past Patrick Reed, 2 and 1. Coetzee was "on hold" as he waited to hear from the tournament organizers whether he'd find a place in the event. Coetzee had a sense Bjorn might pull out.

"I told him the only guy who might was Thomas Bjørn because he was the oldest guy and he might be tired of playing golf," Coetzee told the European Tour's website.

"He phoned me back and said the rumor was true and Bjørn had withdrawn. I told him it wasn't a rumor, I had just made it up! If my flight had been Sunday night it would have been a totally different story. It could be lucrative timing."

Reed played well, keeping pace with Coetzee with four birdies and an eagle. But the young Texan, who earned 3½ of the Yanks' total of 11½ points in their failed Ryder Cup effort last month, ran out of holes against the hot Coetzee.

"I played well and any time you are 6-under you would hopefully win the match, but George played extremely well. He beat me in extra holes in the Accenture Match Play earlier this year but that was a match where we both played really poorly and it was more of a pillow fight. Today was just one of those things about match play - even if you play really well you can still get beat."

Coetzee will next face Stenson, who beat fellow Swede Jonas Blixt 2-up. "He definitely pushed an old man all the way to the last there," said the 38-year-old Stenson of Blixt, "and made it very interesting."

Luiten has gone undefeated en route to a remarkable 4-0 record in the Match Play Championship. On Saturday, he continued his outstanding play by routing Spain's Pablo Larrazabal 6 and 5. "You have to be aggressive and stay aggressive in this format and I've done that well in the last couple of days," said the 28-year-old Dutchman.

In the semifinals he'll face Ilonen, who vanquished France's Victor Dubuisson 2-up. Dubuisson enjoys a growing reputation as a fine match-player; he finished second to Jason Day in February at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona and scored 2½ points for the Europeans in their win at Gleneagles.

"It felt like it could have gone either way and I was lucky to come out on top in the end," Ilonen said. "The goal was obviously to play all week and we're there. So now we just have to keep pushing."

The tournament involves an opening round robin, with the field divided into four groups. Two winners out of those groups each advanced to the quarterfinals Saturday. The tournament concludes with the 18-hole semifinals Sunday morning followed by the 18-hole championship match in the afternoon.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2014/tournamentid=2014082/leaderboard/index.html.