Chip Beck Beats Nick Faldo in Golf Semifinals

Chip Beck survived Nick Faldo’s runaway start and beat the defending champion 2-and-1 today to reach the semifinals of the World Match Play golf championship at Wentworth.

Beck led by as many as five holes at one point after Faldo, the Masters and British Open champion from Britain, won the first two of 36 holes.

U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin lost to Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe, 6-and-4, while Welshman Ian Woosnam defeated Northern Ireland’s Ronan Rafferty, 5-and-4.

Greg Norman of Australia beat countryman Wayne Grady with a birdie on the second playoff hole to gain a semifinal berth against McNulty. Beck plays Woosnam.

Faldo landed a 1-iron within 8 feet of the flag on the first hole for a birdie, then chipped to 6 feet on No. 2 for a par after Beck bogeyed out of a bunker.

The two-hole lead began to fall apart when Beck sank a 16-foot putt at the fifth. He then scored par as the usually steady Faldo had bogeys at the seventh and ninth holes.

Faldo also had bogeys at the 10th, 12th and 13th holes, and he fell five behind when he hit into a bunker at the 15th.

He made up ground at the start of the second 18 when Beck missed a 4-footer at the fourth and 3-putted the fifth.

When Faldo birdied the 25th and Beck missed a 2-foot putt, the Englishman had cut the American’s lead to one. And it was even at the 28th when Beck had a penalty drop from a ditch and posted a double-bogey 5.

Just as Faldo appeared ready to recapture the lead, Beck rallied again. He holed from 16 feet at the 29th and birdied the next to go two ahead.

Faldo’s 24-foot birdie putt at the 31st cut the lead to one, but Beck’s birdie-4 at the next-to-last hole clinched a semifinal place.

After the match, Faldo said he has withdrawn from England’s team for the Dunhill Cup golf tournament at St Andrews, Scotland, Oct. 11-14.

The Englishman said he wanted to give his injured left wrist a five-week rest. Faldo said he will not play again in Europe this season and his next appearance will be in Japan.