You May Have Not Heard of Him, But He’s Now a World Matchplay Champ
You may not have heard of Mikko Ilonen. He is from Finland and he is now entitled to describe himself as the Volvo World Matchplay champion after beating Henrik Stenson at the London Club and pocketing a check for about $700,000. It has to be said that the sponsors of the Accenture World Matchplay, won earlier this year by Jason Day after an epic battle with Victor Dubuisson might have something to say about all of this - that, after all, is a matchplay event that brings together the top 64 golfers in the world.
The Volvo version has a 16-man field, the top-ranked of whom was Stenson. But the fact is that, throughout the week, the 34-year-old from Finland has played some glorious golf, and he did so again in the final to beat Stenson, the top seed, on the 17th green.
There are those, especially in Great Britain, who will recall the golden days of the world matchplay, the days when Peter Alliss used to regale us with tales of Colonel Mustard's bunion, the October medal at Topbottom Golf Club and hail the entrepreneurial skills of the young lad who used to set up his table at Wentworth and sell golf balls to the spectators. Huge crowds would meander their way through the course and, generally, the weather would be fairly kind to the tournament organizers and fans alike.
We have it in our minds that, back in the day, this event was always won by the game's best players and it is true that Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros and Greg Norman all claimed this title. But in those days, IMG, who ran the tournament (and still do) held the game of golf in its thrall and managed the likes of Nicklaus, Palmer and Player. Times have changed. And let's not kid ourselves that the past champions were all stellar names - Graham Marsh, Isao Aoki, Bill Rogers, Corey Pavin and Nicolas Colsaerts all have their names on the trophy.
Volvo will sponsor it again in 12 months' time, but then its future is in doubt. Sadly, it is now well near impossible to persuade the world's best 16 golfers to travel to England in October. But none of that should demean either the quality of the golf we witnessed at the London Golf Club or the quality of the course itself - despite being subjected to torrential rain, the greens were magnificent and everybody connected with the Kent layout should be proud of how well it stood up to the elements.
And do we really want to see players slog out a matchplay contest over 36holes? Probably not. Besides, anybody who is ranked in the top 100 of the world rankings these days is good enough to win against any field - and the 16 men who started out the week were all comfortably in that top 100.
Ilonen carded four birdies and no bogeys despite the windy conditions to win 3&1. Stenson, who had not led at any stage of his morning semi-final against George Coetzee before making a birdie on the 18th to triumph, claimed an early lead in the final on the fourth. But he bogeyed the fifth and hit his tee shot into the water on the eighth, before birdies on the tenth and 12th took Ilonen three up.
Stenson, still seeking his first win since the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai in November last year, refused to throw in the towel and birdied the 13th to reduce his deficit.
But after almost holing his chip from the back of the 14th green, the Swede could only look on as Ilonen holed from 12 feet for birdie to move three ahead again – this time with just four holes remaining.
Stenson fought back once more with a birdie on the par five 15th, but was unable to birdie either of the next two holes as Ilonen – who had beaten Joost Luiten 2&1 in the semi-finals – secured the biggest win of his career.
Ilonen was thrilled with his victory. "This is the best season of my career. The final could have gone either way. We were very tightly matched but I had a better afternoon than he did. If we played again tomorrow, it might go the other way. We were obviously playing for the trophy as hard as we could, I came out on top and I am very, very glad that I did. When you see some of the names on the trophy, I can't quite believe mine is now on there alongside them."
Stenson, who had played brilliant golf all week, was philosophical about his performance. "I exceeded my expectations for the week. When Jonas [Blixt] took me to the 18th yesterday, I felt like I was running low on energy, and against Joost this morning it was the same thing. I didn't play my best in the final. I was a bit unlucky on a couple of putts but no question, Mikko didn't make any mistakes and when he did, he recovered well. So all credit to him for his fine performance this week."
Luiten finished in third place after beating Coetzee in the consolation match.
The semi-finals saw Luiten, of Holland, take on Ilonen, while Stenson faced Coetzee, the big-hitting South African. First out was Luiten, winner of last month’s Wales Open, and Ilonen. Luiten was the only man to have won all his matches so far this week but he lost the firs and seventh to birdies before Ilonen hit his tee shot at the eight into the water. He also bogeyed the 11th for the match to draw level and set up a tense finale, and Luiten took the lead for the first time with a birdie at the long 13th. This was to be short-lived, as he over-hit his approach shots at the next two to go one down with three to play. Ilonen hit a fine approach at the 17th and then holed a tricky right-to-left putt to win the match 2&1.
Stenson and Coetzee halved their match in the group section earlier in the week earlier and the South African was making the most of his late arrival into the tournament(he replaced the injured Thomas Bjorn), having only dropped one shot all week. Stenson went into the lake at the first and also lost the second to a birdie to go two down, before birdies at the short fourth and eighth holes tied things up again.
Coetzee restored his lead at the ninth but three-putted the next only for Stenson to return the favor at the 12th. An exchange of birdies at the next two meant Coetzee was one up with four to go, but Stenson drew level again at the next with an eagle three. Pars at 16 and 17 meant they headed down the final hole level, and although bunkered off the tee, Stenson, the world number 5, holed a great putt for birdie to make it through by the narrowest of margins.
