Friday 1 May 2015 19:12, UK
Ryder Cup stars Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell crashed out of the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship as defending champion Jason Day also suffered an early exit.
Poulter and McDowell both slumped to their second defeat in two days, but Stenson can feel aggrieved after falling victim to the new format as his win over Brendon Todd was rendered meaningless by John Senden's victory against Bill Haas in Group 3.
A defeat for Senden against Todd and a Stenson victory over Haas in the final round of group matches would see both men with a 2-1 record, but Senden would go through due to his win over Stenson on Wednesday.
McDowell was three up after eight holes of his battle with Harris English, but he bogeyed the ninth before the American birdied three of the next four holes to go ahead for the first time in the match.
English made it five wins in six holes when McDowell bogeyed the 14th before closing out victory on the penultimate hole, but Rickie Fowler's win over Shane Lowry in Group 13 meant English cannot advance to the last 16.
Poulter's poor run continued as he slipped to four down against Gary Woodland, although the Englishman clawed two holes back at 12 and 13 before his bogey at 15 ended the contest.
Former US PGA champion Keegan Bradley was the first player eliminated when he lost his second match of the week to Bubba Watson, who will face Louis Oosthuizen in a Group 4 decider on Friday.
Watson beat the South African in a play-off to win his first Masters title in 2012, but after knocking out Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez, Oosthuizen said: "We are not playing for a green jacket but I need to play well so I need to have a good start and make birdies."
Day also crashed out after losing to Oosthuizen's compatriot Branden Grace, but Justin Rose kept his hopes alive after birdies on the 18th and 19th earned a clutch win over Anirban Lahiri in Group 6.
"It's taken me 37 holes to get any lead in this championship," said Rose, who was never ahead during his opening loss to Marc Leishman just three days after winning the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. "It was a hard-fought battle and at least I have a chance of getting into a three-way play-off."
For that to happen, Rose needs to beat Ryan Palmer and hope Lahiri beats Leishman.
Another three-way play-off could happen in Group 15 between English pair Danny Willett and Andy Sullivan and US Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed, Willett beating Reed 2&1 and Sullivan defeating Ryan Moore 3&2. However, a win for Willett would definitely see him through with a 100 per cent record
Live coverage of day three in San Francisco begins Friday at 10pm on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
