Fisher finishes with a flourish to seal Masters spot
WHAT a way to win a match. What a way to secure a last-minute invitation to the Masters.
One of the great passages of play in Ross Fisher’s career drew to a spectacular conclusion yesterday when he holed a bunker shot to close out his tie against two-time Masters Champion Bubba Watson and book a place in the quarter-finals of the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship.
All week the statisticians had been moving the goal posts as to what Fisher needed to do to move up three spots into the world’s top 50 when the rankings are updated on Monday, and earn a trip to Augusta. They moved so often it was tempting to wonder if he’d also have to overcome Chelsea and win the Premier League to make it.
The 36-year-old was not to be denied. When the bunker shot dropped below ground, the stats nerds were all in agreement: he’d made it.
Not surprisingly, Fisher was still hedging his bets. ‘Over the past couple of days I’ve seen people on Twitter saying: “Congrats Ross, you’re going to the Masters,” and then other people are not so sure,’ he said.
‘I think the best thing for me is forget about it and keep winning, and hopefully that will be enough.’
As it turned out, there was no time anyway to celebrate a first appearance at Augusta for five years.
After lunch, there was a quarter-final against Japan’s Hideto Tanihara, a 2&1 winner over Paul Casey, Britain’s other representative in the last 16.
Fisher was actually one down after seven against Watson but then put together a dazzling sequence where he won five of the next eight holes to win 4&3.
The win was sealed in spectacular fashion from the bunker.
‘It was a great way to finish a tough match,’ said Fisher. ‘Bubba showed what a great champion he is, throwing everything at me, but fortunately I played really solid.’
After a flat three days when the group stage seemed to go on interminably, the glory of head-to-head golf was on display in the Texas sunshine.
There was the seemingly ageless Phil Mickelson, now 46 but winning his match against Marc Leishman with plenty to spare. Ditto the brilliant young Spaniard, Jon Rahm, over American Charles Howell III. There were victories for the gritty Scandinavians, Soren Kjeldsen from Denmark and Alex Noren from Sweden.
There was also another demolition job from the man comfortably the best player in the world right now. For the fourth match in a row Dustin Johnson won the first hole — this time against namesake Zach — and for the fourth match he was never pegged back at any stage.