Woods Has a Meltdown of His Own

Nick O'Hern's fans: Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!

Tiger Woods' fans: Oy, vey ...

What's surprising about Nick O'Hern's 1-up win over Tiger Woods at the WGC Match Play Championship is not that Woods lost, but how he lost.

Woods fell behind early, and was 4-down after just seven holes. But he fought back, and managed to square the match late. On No. 17, O'Hern took back the lead, and Tiger reached the No. 18 tee 1-down. But Woods played a brilliant 18th, birdying and sending the match to extra holes.

And that's where he came undone. On the first extra hole, Woods was in clear command, his ball just short of the par-5 green in two while O'Hern's second shot was about 90 yards short and in the rough.

O'Hern's approach stopped just off the edge of the green. Woods had about a 35-foot chip. He made a good stroke and his ball settled about 3 1/2 feet past the cup.

O'Hern's birdie try scooted past the edge of the cup and he picked up with a par. It seemed over. Woods wasn't going to miss that 3 1/2-footer, right?

Miss it he did with what appeared to be a cold push.

On to the second playoff hole. Both drives in the fairway, then O'Hern put his approach to a right-side flagstick into the bunker off the left side of the green. Woods had a huge green to fire at, and was probably 45 yards closer than O'Hern had been.

But Woods jerked the ball about 30 yards offline, flying the bunker that O'Hern's ball was in and winding up in the rough. Still, O'Hern's bunker shot was much hard than Tiger's chip, so it still appeared to be advantage Tiger.

O'Hern hit a pretty good shot from the bunker, to about 12-15 feet. Then Woods, who should have been expecting to get the ball within six feet or less, hit a terrible chip. He came up about 20 feet short.

His putt didn't go, O'Hern's did, and Tiger Woods had blown the match.

If Phil Mickelson had lost in this manner, we'd be calling it a "meltdown" and questioning the state of his psyche.

Here are the quarterfinal matches for Saturday morning(semifinals to follow in the afternoon):

• 
  
• Nick O'Hern vs Henrik Stenson
  
• Justin Rose vs Trevor Immelman
  
• Chad Campbell vs Stephen Ames
  
• Paul Casey vs Geoff Ogilvy