Sergio Garcia made his opponents finish everything.

David Duval found it difficult on the first hole of his match with Sergio Garcia, with Garcia facing a putt of not more than 18 inches for par. Duval went about his own business, making Garcia sink the putt to tie the hole.

Two holes later, Garcia ran his birdie putt about the same distance by and marked his ball. Duval then hit his 20-footer about 10 inches by.

As Garcia bent down to replace his ball, Duval was marking his putt. The players looked at each other, shrugged, and both conceded the putts.

"I don't expect any putt to be given to me, so I hope the person I'm playing isn't expecting me to give them any either," Duval said.

Shigeki Maruyama presumably feels the same way.

All day long Friday, Maruyama made Tiger Woods finish off his putts, except for a few times when they were hanging on the edge of the hole.

Of course, it almost paid off for Maruyama when Woods' 18-incher barely snuck into the cup on the 11th hole.

Woods ended up not needing any help, anyway. He closed Maruyama out 4 and 3 on the 15th green.

Thanks for the effort
Add another name to the growing list of player-caddie splits. But this may have been the nastiest split of all.

About 15 minutes before British Open champion Paul Lawrie played Billy Mayfair in the second round of the Match Play, he told caddie Paddy Byrne he was tired of him and fired him on the spot.

Lawrie used his coach, Adam Hunter, during his 3 and 2 victory. Hunter was wearing soft spikes, and had to scramble to find a pair of tennis shoes for his new job as a looper.

Lawrie and Byrne had been together for 51 weeks, a run that included victories in the Qatar Masters and Carnoustie.<

Hard at work
The best player in the world didn't get there without working.

Unhappy with his play in beating Retief Goosen in the second round, Woods hit the practice range with his coach, Butch Harmon.

What did he work on?

"Well, we worked on my hip turn, my shoulder turn, my right knee flex and the right foot on the way down," Woods said. "Make sure my left arm was high enough, get the club down in front of me, and working on my left wrist at impact."

Woods said it was just a normal practice session.

"Any player who plays this game is always going to have the same faults," he said. "I may throw in a couple more, I may take a couple out. But they usually run about like that."

Keeping the pool in order
When the Match Play was held for the first time last year, the seedings went out the window early. Jeff Maggert, the 24th seed, ended up beating Andrew Magee, the 50th seed, in the final.

This time around, there have been fewer upsets and three of the top four seeds made the quarterfinal field of eight.

"It seemed like last year, everybody was working the brackets like the NCAA tournament," Davis Love III said. "And we were all saying there was no way you could pick a winner. It would have been impossible."

Love should know. As the No. 4 seed last year, he was bounced by Steve Pate in the first round.

"I don't think anybody would have penciled in the Maggert win on their chart," Love said. "Nobody would have won the pool."

They have a better chance this year, with Love (4), David Duval (2) and Tiger Woods (1) the top seeds remaining.

Divots