McIlroy storms into quarter-finals

Rory McIlroy continued his dream American professional debut last night when he booked a place in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship quarter-finals.

The Irish teenager, in his first start as a professional in the United States, made it three wins in as many days as he reached the last eight with a 4&3 victory over Tim Clark of South Africa.

Clark cut short Tiger Woods' comeback from an eight-month injury lay-off yesterday with a 4&2 victory over the world number one at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club but that victory clearly took its toll and McIlroy capitalised to the full.

"I think, yesterday, obviously playing on so much adrenaline, it's tough to come out today," Clark said. "And I just felt a little bit flat. Rory played really well."

The 19-year-old jumped into a lead at the opening hole as Clark bogeyed the par-four first and the teenager stretched his lead with a birdie four at the second to go two up.

McIlroy quickly established a stranglehold by going four up after six holes before Clark won his first hole at the seventh.

The Dubai Desert Classic winner hit straight back with a birdie at the eighth to regain his four-up lead and maintained it to claim victory at the 15th.

"I think Tim didn't play his best golf today," McIlroy said. "Understandably, he was probably a little flat after all that happened yesterday and I came out and got off to quite a fast start and got an early lead, and I was able to hang on and get the win.

"It's great, fantastic."

McIlroy now plays 2006 winner Geoff Ogilvy in the last eight after the Australian beat Camilo Villegas of Colombia 2&1.

England's Ross Fisher booked his quarter-final place with a 4&3 victory over Jim Furyk.

There was a setback for Fisher's compatriot Luke Donald, who conceded his match with Ernie Els on the 18th tee after complaining of weakness in his left wrist, the same joint that required surgery last year and caused him to miss the latter half of last season.

The concession came with Donald still in with a chance of taking his match to extra holes, as he had done in beating Vijay Singh yesterday.

He was trailing one down to Els at the last but the Englishman called it quits in order to prevent further damage, handing the South African victory.

"I didn't want to risk it," Donald said immediately afterwards. "I hit my tee shot on 17 and, for the first time since coming back, I felt a little twinge in my wrist.

"It didn't feel great when I hit that bunker shot, either. So rather than risk it, I wanted to play it safe and concede the match to Ernie.

"When I rotate the wrist I feel a little bit of a popping sensation. I didn't get to that stage but it felt a little bit weak and I didn't feel like I could make a full, proper swing."

Fisher, meanwhile, was celebrating his third-round 4&3 victory over former US Open champion Furyk, a day after crushing American Pat Perez 6&5 in the second round.

"It was a great achievement to get to today," Fisher said. "But I knew going into today, playing a guy like Jim, it was going to be a very difficult match.

"He's a great player, he's a Major winner, he's Mr Ryder Cup; you know, he's a gritty competitor.

"So I knew it was going to be a very difficult match but I felt very comfortable and confident going into it.

"My game's been in really, really good shape this week. I feel like the course suits me very, very well. I just knew I had to come out and play some solid golf."

Fisher faces Justin Leonard, who ended Oliver Wilson's giant-killing run with a win at the 19th hole, and Paul Casey made it two Englishmen in the last eight with a 3&2 victory over Sweden's Peter Hanson.

He now plays Sean O'Hair after the American defeated Ian Poulter 2&1.

Stewart Cink won the all-American battle with Phil Mickelson, one up, and will play Els.

"Stewart is playing very well, hit a lot of good shots, made some good putts, the front nine especially," Mickelson said.

"I think he's going to be tough to beat and certainly was tough for me."