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Harrington and Montgomerie progress in World Match Play

20/02/2008

Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Scotland's Colin Montgomerie have both won their opening matches at the Accenture World Match Play in Arizona.

Harrington took on American Jerry Kelly in the third game of the day and won the match four and three while Montgomerie produced a stunning result, beating world number two Jim Furyk three and two.

The pair may face-off in the third round of the tournament should they win their respective second-round matches.

Harrington will play Stewart Cink tomorrow following his win over Miguel Angel Jimenez while Charles Howell III will face Montgomerie.

Although Harrington was happy with his win over Kelly, the Open champion claimed there was still room for improvement.

He said: "I'm still a little bit uncompetitive, a little bit rusty. I am happy with what I've done but maybe not as comfortable as the scoring suggests.

"I think the more I play this week, the sharper I'll get, hopefully, as each day goes on, if I can keep winning I should be getting better."

It was a good day for some of Europe's other Ryder Cup hopefuls as Sergio Garcia won his match against John Snedden three and two and there was also a win for Ian Poulter two and one over Soren Hansen.

Englishman Paul Casey won his match against Robert Karlsson by two, after holing a birdie on the 18th green, however compatriot Justin Rose was less fortunate – losing two and one against Rod Pampling.

After nine holes of his match Tiger Woods was struggling, two down against JB Holmes.