Duval and Woods on course for final

Who needs another Showdown at Sherwood?

Tiger Woods and David Duval moved another step closer to resurrecting their rivalry on a real stage today in the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship, a single-elimination tournament suddenly ripe with intrigue.

Duval, all but cast aside as the primary threat to Woods after Sergio Garcia made his gallant charge in the PGA Championship last year, put the 20-year-old Spaniard in his place to move into the quarterfinals.

"Had I lost to Sergio today, I would have been further cast aside," Duval said. "He had done some tremendous stuff at the PGA, but I'm pretty good in this game, too."

Woods did his part with a comfortable 4 and 3 victory over Shigeki Maruyama, who said two weeks ago at the Buick Invitational that he had "no chance" to stop Woods's winning streak, and he proved to be correct again.

"You just want to keep getting better and better every match," said Woods, who was every bit of that by making five birdies in 15 holes and never coming close to a bogey in his 4 and 3 victory over Maruyama.

And don't forget about Davis Love III, who has now gone two rounds without a bogey and joined Duval as the only players who have yet to play the 18th hole at La Costa Resort.

The $5 million World Golf Championship event indeed is turning into a global affair -- seven of the eight players remaining played in the Ryder Cup Matches last year, including Miguel Angel Jimenez, Darren Clarke, and British Open champion Paul Lawrie.

What a change from a year ago, when all the top seeds were gone by the weekend.

"It seemed like last year everybody was working the brackets like the NCAA tournament and picking all the seeds," Love said after his 3 and 2 victory over Jim Furyk. "It's a little truer to what people expect, but there's still three matches to go.

"It's a strange, strange tournament," he said. "Anything can happen. You never know who's going to end up where, and that's what makes it exciting."

The only player still alive who wasn't in the Ryder Cup was Scott Hoch, a 3 and 1 winner over Jesper Parnevik. Even Hoch was surprised to be playing Saturday.

"I'm running out of clothes," he said. "(Lee) Janzen had me pick up his clothes because he had to leave early, so maybe I'll check and see if his laundry will fit me."

In other matches, Hal Sutton finally ended Duffy Waldorf's surprising run with a 2 and 1 victory; Lawrie had to go 21 holes to beat 1989 British Open champion Mark Calcavecchia; Clarke hung on for a 1-up victory over Thomas Bjorn; and Jimenez birdied the last three holes to win 2 and 1 over Bob Estes.

Woods became the only player to make it to the quarterfinals both years in the Match Play Championship, and he was never seriously threatened.

Maruyama got back to even with a birdie on No. 5, but Woods answered with a 15-foot birdie on the next hole and used his length for easy birdie on the par-5 ninth to go 2-up and take control for good.

"With a player who plays in streaks, you have to pounce on them the next hole," he said of his key birdie on No. 6. "It's like tennis. The best time to break them is the very next game. I was able to do that."

Duval's match against Garcia wasn't as comfortable, and the tone was set early when Duval refused to concede about an 18-inch par putt on the first hole. Two holes later, both players had 18-inch putts. As Duval stooped to mark his ball, Garcia bent over to replace his ball. They looked at each other and decided to concede.

"Putts are missing," Duval shrugged. "I'm sorry, but that's how it is. Let's putt them. I'm not looking for anything to be given to me."

The match turned on such a putt. Garcia had a 20-foot birdie putt on the 11th that went about three feet by the hole, and he missed it coming back to give Duval a 1-up lead. Duval birdied the next from about 12 feet, then closed out the match with a 4-foot birdie on the 17th.

"He made less mistakes than me," Garcia said. "Maybe next time."

Duval said his match was no more meaningful because of all the attention heaped on "El Nino," but he later conceded there was plenty at stake.

"In the end, that might be a very accurate statement -- it might be Sergio and Tiger as a rivalry, and I might not be involved," he said. "But I could be just as much a part of it right now."

The losers today received $75,000, but Calcavecchia had much more at stake. A berth in the semifinals would have shot him from No. 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking to the top 50 and guaranteed him an invitation to The Masters.

He had his chances in the most thrilling match of the day.

Calcavecchia lipped out a 6-foot par putt on the 18th hole and his match became the seventh of the week to go extra holes when Lawrie missed a 4-footer. Lawrie, who never trailed in the match, finally ended it on the par-3 third with a 20-foot birdie putt.

For his efforts, Lawrie gets a rematch of sorts with Woods on Saturday morning. Woods beat the Scotsman 3 and 2 in the first round of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf for the winners of the four majors last year.