Stenson wins Match Play Championship

Sweden's Henrik Stenson held his nerve down the stretch to win the final at the Accenture Match Play Championship tonight.

Stenson almost holed his tee shot at the 34th hole for a conceded birdie, before closing it out at the next for a well-deserved two-and-one victory over defending champion Geoff Ogilvy at Dove Mountain.

The 30-year-old from Gothenburg is just the second European to win the World Golf Championships event, joining Darren Clarke, the 2000 champion. Plus he did it the hard way, coming from two-down after 26 holes.

After taking a two-up lead after 18 holes, Stenson was all over the map at the start of the second round, making four quick bogeys as momentum clearly shifted in Ogilvy's favour.

But the Australian missed a short five-footer at the 27th hole, which turned out to be the pivotal point of the match.

A clearly buoyed Stenson won the 29th hole with a par and the 30th with a birdie to regain the lead.

He really applied the pressure on Ogilvy at the 34th hole, the par-three 16th.

From there, the ninth seed only had to halve one of the final two holes to win.

It is Stenson's second successive victory, following hot on the heels of the Dubai Desert Classic, and the $1.35m (€1m) prize lifts him to first on the European Tour Order of Merit.