McIlroy denied No 1 spot by Hunter’s victory

After the joy of beating arch rival Lee Westwood from three down before lunch, McIlroy’s bid to dethrone Luke Donald fell flat when he lost the final of the Accenture Match Play Championship 2&1 to American Hunter Mahan.

The Northern Irishman will try again at this week’s Honda Classic in Florida – Donald is not playing – but he will be back to facing nearly 140 players there compared to just one. McIlroy went from playing some sublime golf against Westwood to making mistake after mistake early on against Mahan.

And despite rediscovering his flair on the back nine his opponent – the man whose defeat to Graeme McDowell at Celtic Manor in 2010 handed Europe the Ryder Cup – made sure it was too late and fully earned his second World Golf Championships title.

The US Open champion had already halved two holes in bogeys when Mahan, conqueror of compatriot Mark Wilson in his semi-final, broke the deadlock with a tee shot to two feet on the sixth.

But McIlroy then double-bogeyed the 486-yard next, seeing a chip come back to him after both men had rolled down the slope in front of the green with their approaches, and then had another six on the long eighth after driving into a bunker and going long with his third.

Mahan went three up there despite three-putting for par and when both parred the next he had turned in a level-par 36 to McIlroy’s 39. The gap became four when he missed from nine feet on the 10th after 29-year-old Mahan had almost holed his approach and only did then the player from Holywood spark into life.

He chipped in for eagle at the 11th and had a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th. That was the good news for his fans, but the bad was that Mahan matched two of the birdies and after lipping out for victory from 15 feet on the short 16th another par on the next settled it.

Earlier Westwood had won three of the first four against McIlroy, but opened the door by bogeying the fifth and then saw his former stablemate birdie six of the next eight, all but one of them for wins.

Westwood, now three down, then produced an 18-foot eagle putt after driving the green on the 343-yard 15th, but missed at the next and conceded defeat after bogeying the 17th.

The afternoon also went America’s way in the third place play-off, Wilson never trailing either as he beat Westwood on the final green.