Donald Way Up on Kuchar as Match Play Goes 36 on Saturday

Luke Donald currently holds a 5-up lead over American Matt Kuchar thru 8 holes at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, Arizona as the Englishman has made 5 birdies in his first 8 holes to take a commanding lead in his semi-final match.

With him seemingly on his way to the final, he’s now the prohibitive betting favourite at (11-10), but this is match play so there really are no absolutes until the winning putt is holed.  Look no further than Bubba Watson’s monumental comeback against JB Holmes where he roared back after being down 5 early in the match.

However, a comeback for Kuchar may not be in the cards today, as he’s been spraying it all over the course finding the desert on more than one occasion.  Kuchar simply doesn’t look all that precise to kick off his match and now he’s got just 10 holes to eliminate the 5 hole deficit.

Seeing as a comeback is very unlikely, it’s no wonder Kuchar’s outright odds of taking the title are now (33-1).

Martin Kaymer will be the number one player in the world if he can dispose of semi-final opponent Bubba Watson and then go on to win the final.

However, it’s not going to be easy by any means to take down Watson who has got to be charged up after his huge comeback over JB Holmes in the quarters this morning.

The pair have just teed off the 5th hole and the match is currently all square with each player winning a hole early on.

One cause for concern relating to Kaymer this afternoon as he tries to make good on the outright (13-8) he’s currently at is the fact he can’t get a tee shot in the fairway early on against Watson and just hit another wayward tee ball into the desert on the 5th.

Seeing as they are playing desert golf this week, missing the fairway is even more penal than on a normal evergreen course, as it’s impossible to know what kind of lie one will find in the wild terrain off the fairway.

Watson has been driving it well thus far and could soon make the German pay for his mistakes.  He’s currently got an outright number of (4-1).

The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat    - Sam Snead