DiMarco no match for superb Toms

DAVID TOMS crushed Ryder Cup team-mate Chris DiMarco six and five to win the Accenture World Match Play title in California yesterday - and with it a cheque for £686,052.

In the fourth successive all-American final, Toms, runner-up to Tiger Woods two years ago, simply brushed aside an opponent only two places below him in the world rankings, 16th to 18th.

Now the 38-year-old from Louisiana is back in the top 10 after a weekend’s work which had class stamped all over it.

First he knocked out his regular Ryder Cup partner Phil Mickelson, the third seed, and favourite Woods and Vijay Singh had been beaten four and two in the quarter-finals.

Then he overcame England’s Ian Poulter three and two in stunning fashion, pitching in for an eagle at the 10th and hitting a five-wood to two feet for another on the next. “I was doing okay until he went mad,” said Poulter afterwards.

In the final he was one down after eight but incredibly won eight of the next nine holes.

There were some more superb shots in that but DiMarco covered the stretch in a dismal four over par.

The New Yorker did cut his deficit back to six with a 12-foot birdie putt on the long 18th but when Toms pitched to four feet at the 24th and rolled in a35-footer on the next he was eight-up with 11 to play.

That became nine with 10 when DiMarco fluffed a chip and ran up a bogey six and although he did win three of the next four an eight-foot birdie putt on the 31st finished things off.

“I don’t know what it was but I had a calm about me all week. It is probably the best week of driving I’ve had,” said Toms, who hit a staggering 83% of fairways in seven rounds of golf.

“I’ve never been this at ease on a course. I felt I could hit every shot no matter what it was. I was not playing great coming in and I can’t explain it but I love match play, for some reason it gets me really focused.”