World No. 1 Rory McIlroy shot a bogey-free 5-under 67 to beat his boyhood idol Tiger Woods by one stroke and win the Duel at Jinsha Lake in Zhengzhou, north China's Henan Province, yesterday.

[Photo/Sohu]

The invitation prize for Woods was allegedly as high as US$2 million while McIlroy got US$1 million for the single-day event, according to AP.

McIlroy, winner of four titles this year including his second major, sprinted out of the blocks with birdies at holes one and three at Jinsha Lake Golf Club and added another at eight to make the turn in 3-under 33, two ahead of Woods.

Woods, the 14-time Major champion, responded to the challenge with birdies at 10, 12 and 14, offset by a bogey at 13, as the world No. 2 drew within one shot of McIlroy, who also birdied 10.

Both players then birdied the 537-yard par-5 14th before McIlroy held on for the victory with four straight pars to round off an impressive performance over the 7,039-yard layout, edging the head-to-head medal-match contest.

[Photo/Sohu]

"It was close the whole day. I had the better start, then Tiger started getting birdies on the back nine. It was an enjoyable day and I think it was pretty exciting for the fans," said McIlroy, who won the PGA Championship by eight strokes in August.

"It would be great to compete more with Tiger likes this, maybe down the home stretch in the majors."

Woods agreed that both were in good form and had the chance to shoot even lower scores, with both players guilty of missing several short putts on the testing sloping greens at Jinsha Lake.

"We actually both played pretty decent golf. We left a lot of putts out there and we could have really shot some low numbers," said the American, who was playing in Zhengzhou for the first time after flying in from Malaysia on Sunday night.

"This is certainly not like most Mondays. To have this many people come out is pretty special. We're ranked one and two in the world so a match like this can really promote the game in China. I've come here for 11 years now and it's amazing how much the game has grown here."

McIlroy was making his second visit to Jinsha Lake after playing two holes at the club on the second day of last year's week-long, seven-city China Golf Challenge.

However, he was impressed by the size of the gallery who turned out to watch the 18-hole contest.

"It's great that there are so many people who will come out to watch us. The growth of the game here has been huge even in the few years I've been visiting," said the Northern Irishman.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)