Tiger Woods Knocks Out Rory McIlroy In Turkey

It was not a literal knock-out, but it would have felt like one, as Tiger Woods delivered some killer blows to Rory McIlroy at the Turkish World Golf Finals.

He may have been well off his best, but the Northern Irishman will still no doubt be reeling after Woods blew him out of the water, and the competition, by posting a seven-under 64 to McIlroy’s one-under 70.

Having lost to Matt Kuchar and Charl Schwartzel in his previous Group One matches, McIlroy needed to beat Woods with a low gross to progress into the next round.

But his hopes faded very quickly, after he found water at the first and failed to get up-and-down at the par-3 fourth, giving his opponent an early three-shot lead.

McIlroy never got any closer to the American, who will now go on to play Justin Rose in the semi-finals.  Rose got there via a 62 against Webb Simpson. The pair were level at seven-under through 15 holes, before a two-shot swing at the par-5 16th, and a closing birdie gave the Englishman a nine-under total, the best of the week.

The other semi-final will be contested by Lee Westwood who shot a 64 to beat Hunter Mahan by five, and Charl Schwartzel, who had eight birdies en-route to his defeat of Matt Kuchar by two shots.

The stars are playing for a £935,000 first prize and McIlroy, having lost three from three, still went home with £187,000, which works out at £863 per shot.

That’s enough to cheer anyone up. “I’ve got an afternoon by the pool, I don’t mind,” McIlroy said. “I knew I was going to have an afternoon off anyway so I was just going out and playing. I never really had any expectations.

“It’s great to come here, nice weather, play a bit of golf, I get to spend some time with Caroline (Wozniacki) – I viewed it as a week like that. I didn’t touch a club until the first day.”

McIlroy was also very complimentary of his opponent: “I never say good shot as much as when I play with Tiger. He is so solid from tee to green and he basically didn’t hole much out there today and still shot seven-under.

“I’ve said it all year, he’s there, he’s playing well and he is going to win tournaments and contend in majors.”

Woods added: “It felt good. I really hit the ball well and missed quite a few putts out there so it could have been a really low number.

“I got off to a quick start and Rory hit it into the water on the first and got behind the eight ball a little. Once I got a big enough lead I thought just make one more birdie and a few pars and it would put a lot of pressure on Rory to come back at me.”

Final Group One standings:

Charl Schwartzel (SA) points: 3 points
Tiger Woods (US) points: 2 points
Matt Kuchar (US) points: 1 points
Rory McIlroy (NI) points: 0 points

Final Group Two standings:

Justin Rose: 3 points
Lee Westwood: 2 points
Webb Simpson: 1 points
Hunter Mahan: 0 points