Mahan bests McIlory for Match Play Title

After taking his first match of the day in the semi-finals 2 and 1 over Mark Wilson, Hunter Mahan continued his stellar play in the finals of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship beating Rory McIlroy, 2 and 1 to claim his second WGC title.

The victory in the Arizona desert was the fourth of Mahan's career, and first since 2010. Which also happened to be another WGC event.

The final match was all-square through the first five holes, until Mahan took control of the match, winning four holes in a five hole stretch from No. 6 through No. 10.

With a four-up advantage with eight to play, the match is certainly not over. As we witnessed several come from behind wins this week.

Mahan did however hang on to win 2 and 1, putting the damper on the crowning of a new No. 1 player in the world.

McIlory, with a win would have ascended to the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings.

The Irishman did manage to win two holes coming in, though it was a case of too little too late as Mahan closed the deal on the 17th green.

Mahan was asked about McIlroy possibly becoming No. 1 this week with a win. Obviously, he was standing in his way of that accomplishment, and what it meant to him to him to put a stop to that.

"I'd be lying to you if there wasn't. There really was. Deep down you wanted to postpone that crowning of the No.1 player in the world for Rory (laughter). He'll get there." said Mahan.

"I mean he's phenomenal. He's really talented. He'll be No.1 eventually. I'm not worried about it. I'm sure he's not.But, yeah, for sure, when you're a player and I listen to Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo and all those guys, they had him picked to win."

"There was no doubt about it. And that's what everybody was talking about. I didn't think about it when I'm on the course, I'm just going to play well. But there was absolute motivation in that. I think there hasn't been an American player to win this in a while. It feels good. It really does."

Though Mahan took a commanding lead midway through the match, McIlroy was not going to go down without a fight.

Just hours prior, we saw the 22-year old bounce back from three-down to Lee Westwood, to eventually win 1-Up over the Englishmen.

However, this time around. Four down seemed to great of a challenge as Mahan played solid golf through the end to earn his fourth career PGA Tour victory. And second World Golf Championship title.