Ilonen Takes Volvo World Match Play Championship


Mikko Ilonen first beat the red-hot Joost Luiten in the morning semifinals, then upset No. 1 seed Henrik Stenson in the afternoon's final match to win the Volvo World Match Play Championship at London Golf Club in England.

The 34-year-old Ilonen became the first Finn to win the event, his fifth title on the European Tour.

Luiten came into the semis as the field's hottest player, having gone 4-0 in the event that began Wednesday. But in a match where neither player distinguished themselves, Ilonen got a victory after birdies on three of the final four holes to win 2 and 1.

Meanwhile, Stenson and South African George Coetzee waged a tight morning match, with the 38-year-old Stenson finally winning 1-up with a birdie on the last.

Coetzee, who beat Luiten 1-up in the consolation match to finish third, was a last-minute replacement for Thomas Bjorn. So he was happy for the chance to play and earn a paycheck. "It was great. I wasn't expecting that I would be here, first reserve on Sunday, but came here and some nice form and played some good golf and picked up a nice check.

"I came here to compete. I'm happy with the way I played and maybe a couple results go the other way, and all in all it's a good week."

In the championship finale, the match was all-square through seven holes before Ilonen took the lead with a birdie on the par-3 eighth. He never relinquished that advantage, going as much as 3-up before finishing with a birdie on 17 to close it out, 3 and 1.

Ilonen said he went in with a good attitude against the tall Swede. "I see Henrik as one of the world's top players obviously, but I see him as my friend. He didn't intimidate me at all. We've played so much golf together over the years, so I felt quite comfortable playing with him.

"It could have gone either way really. I had a better afternoon than he did. Tomorrow morning we play, it might go the other way. But we were obviously playing for the trophy as hard as we could, and I came out on top."

"I didn't play my best. I was a bit unlucky on a couple of putts but, no question, Mikko didn't make any mistakes really and when he did, he recovered well," Stenson said. "So all the credit to him for his fine performance this week."

For complete scoring details, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2014/tournamentid=2014082/leaderboard/index.html.