Birthday boy McIlroy earns match play title

Rory McIlroy may have missed out on ringside seats for the big fight in Las Vegas, but the world No 1 made amends by giving himself an early birthday present with victory in the WGCCadillac Match Play in San Francisco.

McIlroy, who turns 26 today, defeated Gary Woodland 4 and 2 in the final at Harding Park, his third win of the day after completing an extra-holes victory over Paul Casey in the quarter-finals and producing a brilliant finish to get the better of Jim Furyk in the last four.

The four-time major winner made a scrappy start to the final before a hattrick of birdies from the fifth took him four up at the turn and seemingly certain to win his secondWorld Golf Championship title after victory in the Bridgestone Invitational last year.

However, after both players birdied the 10th, McIlroy bogeyed the 11th by failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker and Woodland reduced his deficit further thanks to driving the green on the short par-four 12th and two-putting for birdie.

World No 52 Woodland looked like winning another hole after McIlroy bogeyed the 13th, only to miss from two feet for par after a superb recovery from a greenside bunker.

And that proved to be the pivotal moment in the contest as Woodland then three-putted the 14th and made a mess of the 16th to give McIlroy the title.

“I’m really proud of myself with how I showed a lot of character early in the tournament coming back from some deficits,” McIlroy said on Sky Sports.

“I played really solid golf. I have got on a nice little run in match play. I got a lot of confidence from the way I played against Rickie (Fowler) in the Ryder Cup last year (winning 5 and 4) and just followed it on through into this.”

England’s Danny Willett, who lost to Woodland in the semis, secured third place by beating Furyk 3 and 2.

Picture: Getty Images. Rory McIlroy saw off the challenge of Jim Furyk in the semi-final before defeating Gary Woodland to land the title.