Faxon Wins Match, Mickelson Meets His

Brad Faxon, Frank Nobilo of New Zealand, Ian Woosnam of Wales and Vijay Singh of Fiji reached the quarterfinals of the World Match Play event with victories Thursday at Virginia Water, England.

Faxon defeated Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, 2 and 1; Woosnam defeated Jesper Parnevik of Sweden, 4 and 3; and Singh ousted Tsukasa Watanabe of Japan, 4 and 3.

The main casualty was Phil Mickelson, who lost on the second playoff hole to Nobilo.

Last year Mickelson also lost in the first round on the final hole. This time he drove his tee shot on the 36th hole into a bunker and settled for par as Nobilo got birdie to force the playoff.

In the quarterfinals, Woosnam will take on three-time champion Ernie Els of South Africa, Faxon faces Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, Nobilo plays Nick Price of Zimbabwe and Singh plays Steve Elkington of Australia.

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Duffy Waldorf needed only 23 putts in an eight-under-par 63 that gave him a one-shot lead after the first round of the Michelob Championship at Williamsburg, Va.

“Just concentrating on hitting the ball the right distance on my putts is all I’ve been doing, and it’s really helped,” Waldorf said after equaling the best round of his career.

Brad Bryant, alone at 64, had only 20 putts until he three-putted the 18th hole from “an acre and a half.”