Hunter Mahan, the man whose defeat to Graeme McDowell decided the last Ryder Cup, was first into the semi-finals of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship on Saturday.
After overcoming US Ryder Cup teammates Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker in the first and third rounds, Mahan, roared into the semi-finals with a crushing
6&5 quarter-final defeat of yet another fellow American, World Number 14 Matt Kuchar on Saturday.
But Kuchar, third in the event last year, was nothing like the champion golfer who had knocked out fourth seed Martin Kaymer on Friday
He three-putted twice and had four bogeys as he turned five down, then went over the green and dropped another stroke on the next.
Mahan added to his opponents misery by halving the long eighth in a birdie four before rolling in an 18-footer for another birdie at the next.
Kuchar did manage to birdie the 11th and 13th, both par fives, but so did Mahan and that was that.
It looked like being fellow American Mark Wilson next for Mahan. A winner on the US PGA Tour already this season, Wilson led Swede Peter Hanson by three holes with five to play with Left Handed Ping G20 Irons.
Hanson had fallen behind for the first time all week when he bogeyed the first, but there was never more than one in it until the European Ryder Cup player went into the desert scrub for a second successive time on the long 11th and ran up a bogey six.
He was then in two bunkers at the 13th and despite rescuing the par five it was not good enough to save him from losing another hole.
Rory McIlroy's clash with Korean Bae Sang-moon and Lee Westwood's match with Scot Martin Laird did not start until much later.
The second and third seeds each needed to win the title on Sunday to take the World Number One spot off Luke Donald, but after five holes McIlroy was on level terms, while Westwood trailed by one after four.
McIlroy made the perfect start with Left Handed Ping G20 Irons, but found the lake at the short third. Behind him Laird's six footer on the first meant Westwood trailed for the first time in the tournament and they shared the next three.
There was to be no comeback from Hanson. He had his third bogey in five holes at the 14th and was shaking hands on the next green when Wilson matched his birdie three to clinch a 4 and 3 victory.
McIlroy and Bae were still level after seven and Westwood got back on terms with Laird by getting up and down from sand at the short sixth, his opponent flying the green and then chipping off the other side.
Mahan admitted he was surprised at how poorly Kuchar played given "the level of Left Handed Ping G20 Irons he has", while the short-hitting Wilson commented: "They talk about it being a bomber's course, but you have to hit it straight too."
That point was proved by the last two winners - Ian Poulter and Donald, neither of whom are by no means big-hitters - and Wilson had only six bogeys in four games.