Poulter turns on the style

Ian Poulter today spearheaded a British and Irish charge into the third round of the Accenture Match Play Championship in California today.

Poulter finished in style with a 12-foot birdie putt to thrash Duffy Waldorf 7&5 at La Costa and lead the way into the last 16 of the delayed £3.7million event.

Just minutes later Darren Clarke joined him in this afternoon’s third round with a similarly comprehensive victory over Alex Cejka.

And Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington were on course to make it four players into the last 16, surpassing the previous best of two British and Irish players at the same stage in 2000.

Montgomerie, who needed extra holes to see off Nick Price in Wednesday’s first round, fired the lowest nine holes of the week to take command of his match against Stewart Cink.

Starting from the 10th, the Scot birdied four of the first six holes, including chipping in from 40ft on the 12th, and also birdied the 17th to be out in 31.

Harrington was aided by an inept display from American Bob Estes, who went to the turn in 40, and the Irishman was three ahead with four to play.

Thursday’s play was completely washed out after torrential rain left large parts of the course under water, and some places only accessible by boat.

That meant an early start this morning with play beginning at 7.10am local time, after a 10-minute delay after more rain, with both the second and third round scheduled to be completed.

Harrington, Poulter and Clarke followed each other off the 10th tee, with Montgomerie not far behind, and all four were soon well ahead in their respective matches.

Harrington halved the opening two holes with Bob Estes before a stunning long iron to within two feet of the flag on the 12th took him one up.

Estes then conceded the 14th after three-putting for a double bogey six, and another bogey on the 17th put Harrington three up approaching the turn.

Poulter was gifted the opening hole when Duffy Waldorf found the four-and-a-half inch rough and could only advance the ball some 40 yards on to the fairway, and Poulter’s solid par four was good enough to edge ahead.

The 11th was shared in birdie fours but Waldorf then bogeyed the 14th and conceded the next after finding water with his approach, and another concession on the 17th put the only surviving Englishman in complete control.

Clarke was in similar command against Cejka, one birdie, one bogey and six pars enough to give him four of the first eight holes.

The two remaining European players were facing each other and Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson had the upper hand over Thomas Bjorn.

Bjorn won the first with a birdie but Jacobson took the next three in a row and two more around the turn to move four up with seven to play.

Top seed and defending champion Tiger Woods on the verge of victory over South Africa’s Trevor Immelman, who chipped in for birdie on the seventh only to see Woods hole from six feet to halve the hole.

By that stage the world number one was already three up and another birdie on the eighth took him out in 32.

The first result of the day came when Phil Mickelson beat Open champion Ben Curtis 7&6, matching the biggest margin of victory in the event’s history.