AKRON, Ohio – Thomas Pieters finds golf to be a lot more enjoyable when he’s playing from the fairway.
Sometimes, that includes another fairway.
The big hitter from Belgium ripped a fairway metal from the third fairway at Firestone over the trees and onto the green at the par-5 second hole, leading to one of his three straight birdies to start the third round at the Bridgestone Invitational. Pieters needed another long shot – this one a 30-foot birdie putt that rammed into the back of the cup – to cap off a wild day with a 4-under 66 and a share of the lead with Zach Johnson.
Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., is three shots back following a 67. He finished his round with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17. Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., shot a 73 and is 11 over.
Johnson, who watched Rory McIlroy blast drives 300 yards or more all day, showed that an efficient wedge game works, too. Just like Pieters, he had eight birdies in a round of 65 and holed a 10-foot birdie putt on the last hole.
Johnson now figures to get another front-row seat to the power game.
Pieters and Johnson were at 9-under 201 going into the final round, and it’s particularly meaningful for both of them.
Johnson hasn’t won since he captured his second major at St. Andrews, and he’s just now starting to find some form with his short game. Pieters is a three-time winner on the European Tour who showed his awesome potential at the Ryder Cup last year, and now has his best chance to win in America since he captured the NCAA title at Riviera while playing for Illinois.
Pieters headed for the driving range after the round to figure out his driver. He was 5 under through eight holes and led by three shots when his accuracy took a turn in every direction – mostly to the left. He didn’t hit a fairway after the 10th hole, dropped three shots and fell out of the lead only as long as it took him to make his eighth and final birdie .
“First eight holes I was in the fairway, hit good shots, made putts,” Pieters said. “And the last 11 is a struggle. I just was out of position every hole. Tomorrow I’ve just got to figure out a way to hit fairways. That’s it.”
Johnson only missed two fairways. More importantly, he is giving himself chances and converted.
“Honing in the wedges with that distance control has been the key, and I think especially the scoring irons,” Johnson said. “And then on a course like this, you’ve got to hit the ball in the fairway. This is the best I’ve driven it probably all year. It’s probably the best driver I’ve had in my bag all year, if not ever.”
He said that after playing with McIlroy, who now has hit 39 out of his 42 drives at Firestone at least 300 yards. McIlroy, however, had to settle for a 68 and left him three shots behind in pursuit of his first victory since the Tour Championship last year.
“I felt like I could have got a lot more out of it,” McIlroy said. “I think if I would have walked off today with a 65 or a 66, I would have felt that was a fair reflection of how I played. But only three behind going into tomorrow, I can get off to a fast start and try and put a bit of pressure on the guys up ahead of me.”
One shot out of the lead was Scott Hend of Australia, who got into his first Bridgestone Invitational on a loophole and posted a 63 even with two three-putt bogeys. The World Golf Championship set aside one spot for the winner of a designated event on the Asian Tour. When that tournament never came together, organizers agreed to take the winner of the Order of Merit from the previous year.
Hend is making the most of his chances in his debut at Firestone. After his lone bogey on the par-3 seventh with a three-putt bogey, Hend took only 10 putts over the final 11 holes, three of them from 30 feet or longer, one of those for par.
“Just channeling my inner Jordan Spieth,” he said.
Hideki Matsuyama, already with one World Golf Championship he won last fall in Shanghai, had a 67 and was two shots behind.
Spieth, meanwhile, needed to channel his inner Hend. He took bogey on the last two holes for a 71 to slip seven shots behind in his bid to win his third straight tournament going into the PGA Championship next week.
Pieters has been looked upon as yet another player to add to the deepening talent pool of young players, especially after his 4-1 record in the Ryder Cup last year at Hazeltine. He has a big game and big expectations, and he can run hot when his game goes sideways.
Pieters made only three pars over his last 11 holes. He took solace going into the final round because he believes he can straighten out his driver, and because he’s in contention for a World GolfChampionship.
“My bad golf is getting better,” he said. “That’s always good.”
AKRON, Ohio – The sun finally came out, and Jimmy Walker saw a glimpse of what he hopes are brighter days ahead.
In a year marked by coping with Lyme disease and bouts of fatigue, Walker endured rain delays of nearly five hours Friday and posted a 5-under 65 for a two-shot lead going into the weekend at the Bridgestone Invitational.
The timing couldn’t be better for Walker, who goes to Quail Hollow next week to defend his title in the PGA Championship.
“It hadn’t been a lot of fun this year,” Walker said. “But it’s nice to see some putts go in and make some solid swings and keep rounds going, make par putts, just the stuff I haven’t been doing.”
He was at 7-under 133, two shots ahead of Thomas Pieters of Belgium, who had a 70.
Walker didn’t have a lot going last year until he finished well in the Canadian Open, and then went wire-to-wire at Baltusrol the next week to win the PGA Championship. So maybe there’s another spark he can find at Firestone Country Club.
“There’s still a lot of golf on a hard course, but I know it’s there,” he said.
He also has a slew of players not far behind him in this World Golf Championship. Rory McIlroy put together a steady round of 69 and was three shots back, along with Zach Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama, who each shot 67.
The large group at 3-under 137 included Jordan Spieth, going after his third straight victory. Spieth missed a short par putt on the 15th and was slipping behind when he faced an awkward lie from the edge of a bunker. Stumbling out of the sand backward, he nearly holed the shot and made birdie, and then he stuffed his approach to 3 feet for birdie on the 18th hole to salvage a 70.
Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., is also four shots back after a 69. Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., shot a second straight round of 74 and is 8 over.
Jason Day, winless in nearly 15 months, also got back into the picture despite some mild back pain. He opened with three straight birdies and shot 30 on the front nine to get back near the leaders, though two bogeys on the back nine slowed him and he shot 66. He was in the group at 137.
“The front side definitely felt like 2015, 2016,” Day said, alluding to his best stretch of golf when he rose to No. 1 in the world. “I was just pouring in everything. I know that it’s still in there. I’ve just got to keep practicing hard. I know it will eventually happen.”
Day felt he was slowed by the last – and longest – of the rain delays. He returned to three-putt the 10th for a bogey and never got back any momentum.
It was like that for everyone who slogged through a 10-hour day.
The second round was delayed 45 minutes at the start, and then another 45 minutes when a small band of storms rolled through. A delayed of some 3 1/2 hours followed, making it feel like two separate rounds and one long day.
Walker still isn’t out of the woods just yet. He first thought he had mononucleosis around the Masters, and it eventually was diagnosed as Lyme’s disease. He has tried to muddle through the year when his energy allowed, though there hasn’t been a lot of practice.
And even a 65, which matched his low score of the year, wasn’t smooth sailing.
“It’s day to day,” he said. “I felt pretty good all week physically, and I wake up this morning and I’ve just got his overall flu feeling in my body. So I take some Advil, it goes away. And then during the last break, it came back, so I took some more. Now it’s gone. You just never know when it’s going to spike up.”
But he felt good enough to make birdie on both par 3s on the back nine, and drop only one shot on the round.
The scoring has been good with the rain and softer greens, and a South course that was in pristine condition to start the tournament. A strong wind arrived after the storm cleared, which kept everyone’s attention.
Only two dozen players from the 76-man field remained under par.
Among those who fell back was Dustin Johnson, the world’s No. 1 player still trying to find his form from a back injury that knocked him out of the Masters. He hit only one green in regulation on the front nine – 60 feet from the hole – and shot 40. Johnson didn’t make a single birdie in his round of 75 that knocked him 10 shots out of the lead heading into the final major of the year.
AKRON, Ohio – Rory McIlroy had his best friend on the bag and his best start on American soil in 18 months. For Jordan Spieth, it was more of the same with two long putts and another comment filled with bravado directed at his caddie.
Both of them opened with a 3-under 67 at the Bridgestone Invitational, leaving them two shots behind Thomas Pieters of Belgium.
Pieters, playing only for the sixth time since he challenged briefly at the Masters this year, holed a 30-foot birdie putt on his final hole at Firestone to finish a day of good scoring with a one-shot lead over Russell Knox.
Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., is three shots back after a 68 while Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., struggled to a 4 over following a 74.
The opening two rounds were moved up to the morning because of a forecast of thunderstorms in the afternoon.
McIlroy split with J.P. Fitzgerald, his caddie of nine years, after the British Open. He decided to use Harry Diamond, who played amateur golf for Ireland and was the best man at McIlroy’s wedding, for the Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship next week.
It didn’t have much bearing on McIlroy’s game, which was fine. McIlroy won at Firestone the last time he played it in 2014.
“We both did the numbers and I sort of consulted him a couple of times. Yeah, it was good,” McIlroy said. “There was a couple of shots that I hit or a couple of clubs that I pulled that I maybe should have just thought a little bit more about. It’s been a while since I’ve paced yardages off and written notes in my book.”
One of them was at No. 9, his last hole, when he went some 50 feet long on his approach and three-putted for bogey. Even so, it was a solid start, and that’s what has held back McIlroy in recent months when he missed three cuts in four tournaments, and then started poorly at the British Open.
Spieth has no such concerns, having won two straight events going into this World Golf Championship with an eye toward next week at the PGA Championship and his shot at becoming the youngest player to complete the Grand Slam.
Winning a major turned this into a great year for Spieth, regardless of what happens at the PGA Championship. He is feeling as good as ever about his game, particularly the way he finished off Royal Birkdale with the amazing escape on the 13th hole and the birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie stretch that followed. The biggest putt was the eagle from 50 feet on the par-5 15th at the Open, now famous for Spieth playfully barking at his caddie, “Go get that!” when it dropped in.
Thursday brought another such moment.
Spieth got back into range of the lead with a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 5 and a 50-foot birdie putt on the next hole that got him to 3 under. But he was in trouble at No. 8, well right of the fairway with trees blocking his view of the green. He couldn’t punch under them because he had too much rough to cover with a punch shot beneath the branches. But he did see about a 3-foot gap way up in the trees. And he was feeling it.
His caddie, Michael Greller, got the yardage and came over to see what Spieth had in mind.
“I said, ‘Michael, just put the bag over there, stand over there and watch this,”’ Spieth said.
Spieth rehearsed his swing with a pitching wedge and pulled it off.
“I split a hole that was 60 yards in front of me and cut it to get onto the green,” Spieth said. “It was really a cool shot. I was shocked I pulled it off.”
Greller smiled, bumped fists with his boss and handed him the putter.
The opening round was no place to lose ground in such good scoring conditions. Dustin Johnson did his part with a 68. He hasn’t won since the Match Play just two weeks before his staircase injury that knocked him out of the Masters. Johnson only wants to give himself a chance to win, and he says all the parts are in working order for that.
Bubba Watson, also showing signs of getting his game turned around, was also in the group at 67 that included Kevin Kisner and Jon Rahm.
The surprise might have been Knox, who has missed his last three cuts and is in danger of falling out of the top 50 in the world for the first time since he won the HSBC Champions in Shanghai in the fall of 2015. The difference was a change in the shafts of his irons, and a change back to the putter he used when he won in Shanghai.
The question is why he would ever take that putter out of play.
“Golfers are sick,” Knox said. “You always blame your equipment rather than yourself. So maybe I just have to take the blame and say I (stunk) and the putter worked.”
AUSTIN, Texas – Dustin Johnson won the Dell Technologies Match Play with more drama than he needed to cap off an otherwise dominant week that made him the first player to sweep the four World GolfChampionships.
The scorecard will show Johnson never trailed in any of his seven matches over 112 holes, ending with a 1-up victory over Jon Rahm for his third straight victory that left no doubt who was No. 1 in the world.
The look of concern, especially as Rahm made a bold charge in the final hour Sunday, spoke to a long day.
Johnson was 4 up with six holes to play when the Spanish rookie with a big game and no fear hit driver over the water and onto the 13th green to win the hole with a birdie. He stuck a wedge close on the 15th for another birdie. Rahm hit a shot through the trees on the 16th and won the hole with a 30-foot birdie.
The rematch Rahm wanted against Johnson, who held him off in Mexico City three weeks ago, ended the same way.
His big rally was a little short.
Playing the 356-yard 18th hole for the first time in competition all week, and needing a birdie to send this heavyweight bout to overtime, Rahm smashed driver over the back of the green. But his chip down the slope checked up and stayed short of the ridge, and he had to settle for par.
Johnson came up just short of the green, chipped to 30 inches and rolled in it to complete another big week.
“That was a tough day, a long day,” Johnson said. “I’m proud of the way I played, the way I hung in there.”
None of his first five matches went longer than 16 holes until Sunday, when Johnson faced the first threat of the week. Hideto Tanihara caught him with two birdies on the back nine, and Johnson needed a pitching wedge to 6 feet on the short but troublesome par-3 17th to take the lead again. Then, he had to make an 8-foot par putt to beat Tanihara and avoid extra holes.
Rahm, who dispatched of Bill Haas in the semifinals, 3 and 2, wanted to face the hottest player in golf in the championship. And for the longest time, it looked as though the 22-year-old Spaniard regretted it.
Rahm gave away three straight holes by missing par putts from 6 feet and 8 feet, and missing a birdie putt from 4 feet. Johnson stretched his lead to 5 up with yet another bogey by Rahm, and it looked as though this match might be over early.
Not so fast.
Rahm, who already is No. 14 in the world in just his 15th tournament as a pro, began chipping away. Johnson three-putted the 10th hole for the third straight match, regained momentum with a two-putt birdie on the 12th hole – Rahm hit his tee shot downhill and downwind at 438 yards, Johnson at 424 yards – and then the Spaniard began his remarkable rally that came up short.
The result was another victory for Johnson, the 15th of his career, and makes him the clear-cut favourite at the Masters in two weeks. The next stop is the Houston Open, where another victory would make him the first player since Tiger Woods in 2008 to win four straight tournaments.
Johnson became just the second player in the 19-year history of this event to never trail the entire week. Luke Donald did it in 2001, but that was before round-robin play and so Donald played only six 18-hole matches that week.
Not only did Johnson never trail, he led in 94 per cent of the holes he played. Donald was ahead in 91 per cent of his matches.
Johnson previously won the Mexico Championship earlier this month (and Cadillac Championship at Doral in 2015), the HSBC Champions in Shanghai in 2013 and the Bridgestone Invitational last summer at Firestone.
That gives him five World Golf Championships, well short of the 18 that Woods won. Woods only played the HSBC Champions twice after it became a WGC event in 2009.
AUSTIN, Texas – Dustin Johnson finally held up his end of the bargain Sunday morning, setting up a powerful title bout in the Dell Technologies Match Play against Jon Rahm.
Johnson was forced beyond the 16th hole for the first time all week in an error-filled finish against Hideto Tanihara of Japan, and the world’s No. 1 played didn’t escape until he holed an 8-foot par putt on the 18th to preserve a 1-up victory.
Johnson headed to the championship match Sunday afternoon with a chance to become the first player to sweep the four World Golf Championships.
In his way was Rahm, the rising star from Spain who faced a tough semifinal of his own against Bill Haas before pulling away with three birdies over his last four holes for a 3-and-2 victory. Rahm has yet to play the 18th hole at Austin Country Club in competition.
Even as Johnson was locked in an unexpected battle with Tanihara, the 22-year-old Spanish rookie said he was hopeful to see Johnson in the final for what he referred to as a rematch from Mexico. Johnson won the Mexico Championship three weeks ago, but not before Rahm made a bold charge in the final round until two bogeys at the end.
A victory for Rahm would make him the youngest player to win a World Golf Championship and put him in the top 10 in the world.
Johnson hasn’t trailed in a match all week, and he has led after 89 of the 94 holes he has played.
But he finally looked beatable against Tanihara.
Johnson was 2 up at the turn when he three-putted the 10th for the second straight round. He looked as if he would lose the par-5 12th when he couldn’t reach the green from a fairway bunker and Tanihara had 18 feet for eagle. In a shocking swing, Tanihara ran it 6 feet by and three-putted for par, and Johnson pitched to 8 feet and won the hole with a birdie.
But it wasn’t a swing in momentum.
Tanihara hit two great shots, a flip wedge to a dangerous pin over the water on the 13th to 4 feet, and a long iron into the wind on the 14th to 6 feet, to win both holes and square the match. From there, Johnson appeared to be playing not to lose.
With Tanihara in trouble on the 15th, Johnson came up well short of the green with a wedge and missed a 5-foot par putt to win the hole. On the par-5 16th, Johnson missed an 8-foot birdie putt to win the hole. He finally regained the lead with a pitching wedge to 6 feet for birdie on the 17th. Even so, he made it tough on himself by leaving yet another wedge short on the 18th and having to save par for the victory.
Rahm had only trailed on one hole this week – the first he played – until Haas rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt on the third hole. Rahm used his power to make birdie on the fifth and sixth to take the lead, only for Haas to answer with a birdie on the seventh to square the match.
Haas had three straight birdie putts from the 15- to 20-foot range starting at No. 9 and couldn’t convert.
Rahm hit a bolder tee shot on the 13th that left him a short wedge that he hit to 10 feet for birdie and a 1-up lead. Haas squandered a great chance to halve the match when Rahm missed the 14th green long, hit a flop shot about 20 feet by and made bogey. From a swale short of the green, Haas chipped weakly to 15 feet and missed the putt to stay 1 down. Rahm took it from there.
Haas and Tanihara played a consolation match with $678,000 going to the winner and $545,000 for fourth place.
AUSTIN, Texas – Dustin Johnson had reason to be rattled.
As he walked off the 12th green Saturday afternoon, the match referee said five words that Johnson heard for the first time all week in the Dell Technologies Match Play.
“The match is all square.”
Until then, Johnson had led after each of the 71 holes he had played at Austin Country Club.
He wasted little time responding to a rare challenge. Johnson birdied three of the next four holes for a 3-and-2 victory over Alex Noren to advance to the semifinals and stay on track for a potential showdown between No. 1 in the world and Jon Rahm, golf’s brightest young star.
“I wasn’t frustrated that I was all square. I was frustrated that I kind of gave 10 and 11 away,” Johnson said. “Came back strong after losing three holes in a row.”
Rahm was so dominant he played only 27 holes in two matches Saturday. He hasn’t had a match go longer than 14 holes since Thursday. And the 22-year-old rookie from Spain still hasn’t played the 18th hole since a practice round Tuesday.
“The golf I’ve played the last three matches really has been very impressive, even to myself,” he said. “And it seemed to get better as I played, which is something that doesn’t happen often.”
Rahm lost only one of the 27 holes he played in his 6-and-4 victory over Charles Howell III and his 7-and-5 victory over Soren Kjeldsen in the quarterfinals.
Rahm faces a semifinal match Sunday morning against Bill Haas, who ended Phil Mickelson’s hopes with a 2-and-1 victory. Mickelson had advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in 13 years with a victory against Marc Leishman.
Mickelson never trailed in any match until he fell behind on the first hole to Haas, and he had never led when the match ended on the 17th hole.
“I struggled making the putts that I have been making all week,” Mickelson said. “That seemed to me to be the difference.”
Johnson, going after a third straight PGA Tour title, faces one of this tournament’s biggest surprises in Hideko Tanihara of Japan.
“He looks unbeatable,” Tanihara said. “I hope he doesn’t feel good tomorrow, so maybe I have a chance.”
Tanihara began the week by beating Jordan Spieth. On Saturday, he took down Paul Casey with two late birdies in the morning fourth round, and then he beat Ross Fisher, 4 and 2, to reach the semifinals.
Johnson has looked unstoppable all month.
He went to No. 1 in the world with a five-shot victory at Riviera. In his next start, he won the Mexico Championship after holding off a late rally from Rahm. Now he’s two victories away from becoming the first player to sweep the four World Golf Championships.
None of Johnson’s five matches has gone beyond the 16th hole. In the fourth round, he beat Zach Johnson, 5 and 4. Noren is the only player to really make him sweat, and that was Johnson’s doing.
Johnson went 3 up at the turn, and then it was gone. He three-putted from 30 feet to lose the 10th hole. His tee shot on the par-3 11th hit the rocks and went into the water. And then he had to settle for par after leaving himself in an awkward spot, only to watch Noren hole a 40-footer to tie the match.
Johnson made a 10-foot birdie putt on the 13th _ Noren missed from 8 feet _ and then began to pull away with another 10-foot birdie on the 15th.
“That putt on 13 I think was a big one,” Johnson said. “That was just outside of him, and to hole that putt, put a little pressure on him, and then he missed it, I think that was a pretty important shot there.”
Haas is still amazed to even be playing. On Friday, he was on the verge of being eliminated when he hit into a hazard in a sudden-death playoff against K.T. Kim to decide their group. Haas took a penalty drop, chipped in from 120 feet for par to halve the hole and won on the sixth extra hole. Then he had to go 18 holes to beat Kevin Na in the fourth round before taking on Mickelson.
Haas made seven birdies in his match. He figured he will need something close to that number for his semifinal match against Rahm.
“I don’t think a single player out here would argue that he’s one of the top five, top 10 players in the world,” Haas said. “He’s hungry. He wants more. You can just see it in him. He’s got that thing about him that’s going to make him a big-time winner out here, and hopefully I can hang with him.”
Fisher left with a consolation prize. By beating Bubba Watson in the fourth round, Fisher will move into the top 50 in the world and qualify for the Masters. Tanihara also was assured of being in the top 50 to get into Augusta National for the first time in 10 years.
AUSTIN, Texas – Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson showed the simple side to the Dell Technologies Match Play. For three straight days in warmth, wind or rain, they built early leads and never let anyone get close to them in advancing out of their groups to the knockout stage.
For just about everyone else, it was a matter of surviving.
Bill Haas delivered another amazing escape when he chipped in from 120 feet to save par and extend a sudden-death playoff that he eventually won in six holes.
Marc Leishman made it to the round of 16 by playing two holes on Friday. He was awarded a victory because Jason Day withdrew on Wednesday, got a reprieve when Lee Westwood beat Pat Perez to force a three-man playoff, and beat Westwood on the second hole with a 12-foot birdie.
“Pat was either going to beat Lee and I was flying home tomorrow morning, or I was going to get to play golf and try to advance,” Leishman said. “I got the latter and advance. So it was a great day.”
It was an easy day for Johnson and Mickelson.
Johnson, the No. 1 seed going for his third straight PGA Tour victory, again won the opening hole and showed why he might be the most feared player in golf at the moment. He shot 30 on the front nine, and all PGA champion Jimmy Walker could do was make the match last as long as he could.
Johnson won, 5 and 3, and goes into the weekend having led after all 46 holes he has played this week.
Mickelson only made two birdies, but he had no mistakes and no trouble in a 6-and-5 victory over J.B. Holmes. Mickelson has led 41 of his 42 holes this week, and he has played so well from tee to green – and especially on the greens – that he has yet to see the 16th, 17th or 18th holes in competition at Austin Country Club.
Mickelson advanced out of the third round for the first time since 2004, so long ago that Lefty was known as the best player without a major and Tiger Woods was starting to work with a new swing coach, Hank Haney.
Johnson and Alex Noren (No. 8) were the only top 10 seeds left going into the weekend. Rory McIlroy (2) was mathematically eliminated on Thursday; Day (3) withdrew; Hideki Matsuyama (4) didn’t win a match all week; and Jordan Spieth (5) didn’t make it out of group play for the second time in three years.
Justin Thomas (6) also was knocked out. Thomas had a 2-up lead with five holes to play until Matt Fitzpatrick won the next four holes with birdies to win the match. That got Fitzpatrick into a playoff with Kevin Na, who had a 4-up lead until Chris Wood won the next six holes and seven out of the next eight.
Their playoff didn’t start for two hours, then Na hit a wedge to 3 feet and he advanced.
Fitzpatrick didn’t even endure the greatest frustration. That belonged to Tyrrell Hatton, his fellow Englishman, who lost to Rafa Cabrera Bello to set up a three-man playoff of stroke play involving Charles Howell III.
Hatton had a 10-foot putt to win on the first extra hole, but just missed on the left. When he went to tap in, he set his putter down and nudged the ball. Under a new local rule, he could have replaced it with no penalty. But he tapped in and incurred a two-stroke penalty, and he was walking back to the clubhouse as Cabrera Bello and Howell played on. Howell wound up winning on the fifth extra hole.
Asked if he knew the rule, Hatton replied, “I really wasn’t thinking at that stage.”
Sergio Garcia (7) lost in a battle of the Spaniards when rising star Jon Rahm took him down. Garcia at least provided one unforgettable moment when a burst of rain during his tee shot on the 13th hole caused him to lose his grip. The tee shot squirted left about 30 feet.
“First, I thought I missed the ball. Second, I thought the club was gone,” Garcia said. “Anyway, the match was already in bad shape there.”
Ross Fisher of England came up with another clutch moment. He only assured himself a spot in the Match Play three weeks ago with birdies on his last three holes in Mexico to tie for third and move up in the ranking. On Friday, he beat Jim Furyk and then holed a 20-foot birdie putt to beat Louis Oosthuizen in a playoff.
Reaching the round of 16 leaves him a good chance to be in the top 50 in the world at the end of the week and get into the Masters.
And now, everyone starts with a clean slate.
It’s single-elimination the rest of the way, starting with the fourth round and quarterfinals on Saturday.
AUSTIN, Texas –With a big lead on the back nine, Jordan Spieth put the ball in water again.
Gulp.
This time, there was no collapse, just a grind-it-out “must win” to beat Japan’s Yuta Ikeda in Thursday’s second round at the Dell Technologies Match Play in gusty wind that lived up to the legendary tough conditions of Texas golf.
Spieth beat Ikeda 4-and-2 at the Austin Country Club a day after losing his first-round match by the same score to Japan’s Hideto Tanihara.
Thursday’s victory, coupled with the draw between Tanihara and Ryan Moore, leaves Spieth needing to beat Moore on Friday and for Tanihara to draw or lose to Ikeda if Spieth is to move on to Saturday’s knockout rounds.
“I’ve got to play better than I did the last two days and I know that. I’ve just got to have complete trust because why not at this point. It’s a win or go home situation,” Spieth said.
Beating Ikeda took some work in conditions that saw gusts top 30 mph, often blowing straight in the golfer’s faces.
The pair made the turn with Spieth 2-up before he stuck his tee shot to within 18 inches on the par-3 11th and tapped in for birdie to win the hole. But Spieth hit a wild tee shot on No. 13 that plunked into the Colorado River – much wider than Rae’s Creek at Augusta – and he peeled out of the shot in disgust.
Instead of seizing the opening for a rally, Ikeda’s tee shot splashed as well. They halved the hole and Spieth steadily closed out the match without any mistakes the rest of the way.
“We both made a mess of the 13th, but all in all, it was a step in the right direction after yesterday,” Spieth said, referring to his opening-round 4-and-2 loss to Tanihara.
As a Texas native, playing in the Lone Star State provides both a comfort zone and an emotional pressure cooker for Spieth.
He plays in front of adoring galleries who cheer his big shots and groan over his mistakes. Youngsters plead for autographs or high-fives whenever he’s within reaching distance. And the Austin Country Club, where he played several times during his short college career at the University of Texas provides a familiar layout of rolling hills and windy riverside greens.
The pressure of his week also comes from what awaits him in two weeks: a return to the Masters, where he won in 2015 but blew a five-shot lead on the back nine last year in an epic collapse as England’s Danny Willett won.
Willett, playing in Spieth’s home territory, has had a ragged tournament with two losses already. A 6-and-5 loss to Bill Haas on Friday eliminated Willett from playing on the weekend.
Before he’d even teed up in Austin, Spieth said he’s ready for this year’s Masters and the questions about the collapse to be behind him. Then he opened the match play tournament with the loss to Tanihara.
Needing a win Thursday just to give himself a chance to get to the championship rounds, Spieth was greeted with a large crowd at the first tee and “Hook’em Horns!” cheers at every hole. Spieth was 3-up after eight holes as the wind belted the players on every swing.
A bogey on the par-4 10th allowed Ikeda an opening until Spieth’s laser tee shot into the 11th put him back in control.
“(Conditions) were about as tough as I think I’ve ever seen it. I couldn’t really fall back on much from school,” Spieth said. “In match play, you’re not upset with these conditions. One-on-one, I think the tougher conditions are better for us. We’ve kind of always believed that so I kind of hope tomorrow is more of the same.”
AUSTIN, Texas – Soren Kjeldsen and Alex Noren won their groups in the Dell Technologies Match Play, one round before group play is even finished.
Rory McIlroy took the day off, and he’s already guaranteed the weekend off.
Thursday was as wild as it gets in this tournament, even without wind ripping so hard through the edge of Hill Country that Phil Mickelson chipped into the water and still halved the hole.
Brandt Snedeker, showing class in the midst of such exasperating conditions, conceded a 7-foot putt when Andy Sullivan’s ball rolled up toward the hole and the wind blew it back.
“I’m sure everybody saw some funny-looking shots out there,” Charles Howell III said, who kept his hopes alive with a clutch pitch and a 1-up victory.
The wind had nothing to do with a domino-effect of withdrawals that allowed Kjeldsen and Noren to get a day of rest Friday.
One after Jason Day withdrew because his mother faces surgery for lung cancer, Gary Woodland pulled out because of a personal family matter. He was scheduled to play McIlroy in the second round, and while McIlroy was conceded a victory, he was eliminated four hours later when Kjeldsen won his second straight match. Kjeldsen was to play Woodland in the third round, so he was assured of winning the group at 3-0.
And so ended McIlroy’s week – 17 holes on Wednesday when Kjeldsen beat him with four straight birdies, no golf on Thursday, and a meaningless match Friday. All that’s left is for McIlroy to decide whether to play the Houston Open next week. He has played just 13 competitive rounds this year.
Noren, meanwhile, had an easy time over Bernd Wiesberger for his second straight victory. He only had to beat Francesco Molinari on Friday, but then Molinari withdrew with a wrist injury, assuring Noren a 3-0 record and a spot in the knockout stage this weekend.
Molinari pulling out also eliminated Wiesberger and Thongchai Jaidee, who get to face each other Friday with nothing at stake.
Along with two players already advancing, 23 players from the 64-man field already are mathematically eliminated.
It was even wilder on the golf course.
Mickelson, who has made it past the third round only once in his 12 previous appearances at Match Play, has never trailed all week and had no trouble against Daniel Berger. But the wind was gusting to 30 mph, and the sun baked out greens that became like Texas hardpan.
Berger was in the water on the par-5 12th and Mickelson was just right of the green in two. His pitch rolled – and rolled – beyond the flag, off the green and into the water. They halved with bogeys.
“It happens,” Mickelson said. “I just didn’t think that we would have the course so severe where that shot would be a problem.”
Still, Mickelson used a word seldom heard at Austin Country Club on Thursday. He said he had “fun.”
Match play made it acceptable.
Jordan Spieth stayed in the game with a 4-and-2 victory over Yuta Ikeda. They halved the 13th hole with double bogeys when Spieth hit into the water, and then Ikeda hit into the water. The wind was that strong, and it was even tougher on the greens.
Dustin Johnson had another easy time as he tries to get in position for his third straight victory, but he still has one more match to claim his group. Ditto for Brooks Koepka, who has yet to see the last five holes in competition. Koepka has closed out both his matches on the 13th hole.
Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia both won two matches and now square off Friday to see which Spaniard wins the group. That also will be the case with Charl Schwartzel and Paul Casey, 2-0 in their groups and facing each other Friday.
“Now we get into the meat of this thing,” Casey said. “For me, it’s straight knockout tomorrow. It’s enjoyable. That’s what I like, and everything is on the line.”
Everything else is still up in the air.
With round-robin play – head-to-head results do not apply in case of a tie – there’s a possibility of two-man, three-man, even four-man playoffs to decide who advances out of group play into single elimination on the weekend.
Bay Hill winner Marc Leishman also had a chance to clinch his group if he had beaten Pat Perez, because Leishman was to face Day in the third round. Perez won on the 17th hole. If he doesn’t win his match Friday, he faces Leishman in a playoff.
“I knew I had to win today. If not, Leish could go drink all night and get ready for Saturday,” Perez said. “Massive performance, I think, on my part today to get that done.”
AUSTIN, Tex. – Defending champion Jason Day lasted only six holes at the Dell Technologies Match Play until a heavy heart forced an early departure.
Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth might not be far behind.
The opening round of golf’s most unpredictable tournament took a stunning turn Wednesday when the third-seeded Day abruptly conceded his match to Pat Perez, then wiped away tears as he revealed his mother has lung cancer. Day withdrew to be with her in Ohio for surgery on Friday.
“It’s been a very, very hard time for me to even be thinking about playing golf,” Day said. “And I know my mom says not to let it get to me, but it really has. So I just need some time away with her to make sure that everything goes well because this has been very, very tough for me. So I’m going to do my best and try and be there the best I can for her because she is the reason that I’m playing golf today.”
Dustin Johnson had no trouble in his debut as the No. 1 seed. He had five birdies in his opening eight holes at Austin Country Club and there wasn’t much Webb Simpson could do, but try to extend the match as long as he could. It lasted 15 holes in a 5-and-3 victory.
“Got a long way to go, but getting the first match in the books with a win is definitely a head start,” said Johnson, who is trying to win his third straight tournament.
McIlroy (No. 2) and Spieth (No. 5) face critical matches the rest of the way.
McIlroy, the 2015 champion and a semifinalist last year, appeared to seize control against Soren Kjeldsen when he won three straight holes to take the lead, including a 410-yard drive on the par-5 12th hole and another drive over the water to the edge of the green on the 317-yard 13th hole into the wind.
Kjeldsen, crisp as ever with his short irons, ran off four straight birdies to end the match. He took a 1-up lead with a wedge in tight on the par-5 16th, and then his pitching wedge that landed inches from the cup and settled 2 feet away for a birdie on the 17th to end it. Kjeldsen was 6 under on the round.
It was the first time McIlroy had lost his opening match since 2013 when Match Play was single elimination.
“If I had played anyone else, I might have won,” McIlroy said. “Overall, I can’t be too disappointed. But at the same time, when standing on the 14th tee just having won three holes in a row, I thought I had him going into a tough stretch of the golf course. But he put up three birdies in a row, and you can’t do anything about that.”
Spieth didn’t put much of a fight against Hideto Tanihara of Japan, making his debut in Match Play.
With the Texas crowd on his side, Spieth missed a short birdie attempt that would have given him the lead on No. 5.
Two holes later, Tanihara poured in an 18-foot birdie putt and Spieth couldn’t match him. And he never caught up. Spieth didn’t win a hole until the 14th – with a bogey – and Spieth gave him the next hole when his wedge sailed over the 15th green.
Spieth and McIlroy are not done yet, though they need some help.
The best record from the 16 four-man groups advance to the knockout stage on Saturday. Ties are determined by a sudden-death playoff, and head-to-head matchups do not count.
“I obviously have to take care of my end of the bargain tomorrow,” Spieth said, who next faces Yuta Ikeda.
Hideki Matsuyama (No. 4) wasn’t all that happy, either. He missed a 6-foot birdie putt against Jim Furyk and had to settle for a halve. Sergio Garcia, meanwhile, was thrilled to get a halve against Shane Lowry.
The Spaniard never led on the back nine and was 1 down going to the 18th. Lowry hit driver well left into the shaggy grass of a hazard, did well to get it on the green but then three-putted for a bogey.
Justin Thomas (No. 6), fell behind for the first time in his match against Chris Wood on the 13th hole. Thomas won the next two and then closed him out on the 17th. Next up for the PGA Tour’s only three-time winner this season is Kevin Na.
“I didn’t know I was playing him until you just told me,” Thomas said. “I guess that can tell you how I’m viewing everything this week. I’m just going to play golf.”
Only nine of the 32 matches went the distance. Charl Schwartzel had the shortest day, ending his match against Byeong Hun on the 13th hole.
Perez went 2 up early on Day, including a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 4 that swirled into the cup. But on the par-5 sixth, Day was listless and chopped his way to a double bogey when he shook hands and walked off the course.
Day never let on that his mother, Dening, was diagnosed with lung cancer at the start of the year. The prognosis was bleak in Australia – he said doctors told her she only had 12 months to live – so he brought her to Ohio in the last month for a new round of tests.
He said doctors have been more optimistic, and Friday’s surgery will determine a plan for recovery.
