World Golf News - 01 March 2011

The US PGA Tour took centre stage this week and next, as players from Europe took advantage of a two week recess to participate in the Accenture Matchplay Championship. Hosted by the exclusive Ritz-Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona the tournament kicked off with a weekend of riveting golf action.

Going into the final day’s play, world number one Lee Westwood was out of the running, while Germany’s Martin Kaymer made it to the finals – the young German now replaces Westwood as world number one, and his new status will be revealed when the world golf rankings are released early this week. After winter weather resulted in the course at Dove Mountain being snowed-over on Sunday, Britain’s Luke Donald emerged victorious over Kaymer as he popped in a two-putt for par at the sixteenth hole to claim victory. With Kaymer taking the number one spot in world golf and Donald bagging the $ 1.4 Million prize money, there were smiles all-round for the final pair as each man celebrated a great achievement in international golf.

In women’s golf, the HSBC Women’s Championship was won by Australia’s Karrie Webb. Starting the final round a stroke off the lead, Webb soon came up to surpass overnight leader Chie Arimura of Japan. World number one Yani Tseng, who enjoyed a superb front nine, made a charge for victory but could not overcome a rather slow start to out-pace Webb. Finishing three under on the final day, Webb managed her game carefully in windy weather at the Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore. This is the Australian’s thirty-seventh career win on the LPGA, and her first win in two years.