Padraig Harrington was last night knocked out of the Accenture World Matchplay Championships at the second-round stage in Arizona.
The Open Champion fought hard to make sure his match with Stewart Cink went down to the last hole, but lost by two to the American.
Harrington took an early lead, winning the first and fifth holes to go 2 up, however Cink battled, taking four of the next six holes before eventually edging to victory.
Elsewhere, Colin Montgomerie produced a sizzling back nine to hold off American Charles Howell.
On a day when top seed Tiger Woods won at a canter, Howell took the lead with four successive birdies from the 10th hole, but Ryder Cup hero Montgomerie dug deep to birdie three of the next four holes and score a hard-fought one-up victory.
Montgomerie's stellar performance highlighted a pretty disappointing day for the European contingent.
Paul Casey was the only Briton to join Montgomerie in the third round, recovering from a slow start to outlast Welshman Bradley Dredge two and one, while Spaniard Sergio Garcia was no match for Boo Weekley, the American winning decisively three and one.
Australian Aaron Baddeley advanced to the final 16 without even hitting a shot, as his American opponent, David Toms, withdrew with a back injury.
Baddeley therefore claimed a third-round match against Tiger Woods, who was never in trouble against Arron Oberholser, winning three and two.
'I played a lot better today,' said Woods, who was lucky to escape with a narrow victory on Wednesday.
'I did some work last night on the range, then did some work in the room and came out today with a game plan of what I need to do to warm up.'
