Austin Country Club played like a completely different course on the second day of the World Golf Championship-Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club.
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Jason Day has made no secret about his desire to walk in Tiger Woods’ footsteps, but clutching his back and crying out in pain during his 3-and-2 win over Graeme McDowell on Day 1 of the WGC-Dell Match Play was certainly not what he had in mind.
Arriving at Austin Country Club still uncertain if he could continue, Day surprised himself by completing his warm-up without issue and then spanked his opening drive to set up an eagle on the 371-yard par four first hole, boosting his confidence in his back.
McIlroy defeated Smylie Kaufman 3 and 1 in a tight match that saw each player twice hold and lose a 1 up advantage over the first 13 holes.
Daniel Berger never finished against Phil Mickelson when his club hit a rock structure on the way down. “If not I will try to get ready for the Masters”.
Spieth went to 2-0 with a 5 and 4 victory over Victor Dubuisson on Thursday, meaning he is assured of at least a sudden-death playoff in order to advance to the final 16 players and the knockout stage. As long as you have control of your golf ball, I feel like anyone’s game could play out here.
Reigning British Open champion Zach Johnson posted the tournament’s largest winning margin so far as he swamped Martin Kaymer 8 and 6 in a match that ended on the 12th hole. He went 3 up after birdies at the third and fifth, maintaining that cushion until his lone setback of the day, a double bogey at the par-three 11th.
“I took a couple of practice swings and thought I had a clear swing”, Berger told reporters.
“Seeing the guys that have won, with Bubba (Watson) in LA, Adam (Scott) in those two starts in Florida, Charl (Schwartzel) in Tampa and Jason (Day) last week, everyone is running in good form”, McIlroy said. If you’d rather be more cautious, you can select lie angles, irons and take your swing by just swiping on your phone’s screen instead.
The American had reached the 18th all square, only to pull his tee shot towards the rocks and fail to make contact with the ball during his downswing.
“We’re gonna learn a lot hopefully and we’ll learn from this year’s event, and hopefully the next years are even better and better and we can build off of it”, said Callejas. “You’re kind of on edge all day” , Snedeker said. In a tighter match, we’re going to have to grind. Under these hard conditions when you start to hit it less than flawless, it gets magnified. At the end of the day, I still had to hope for somebody else to do something. “There wasn’t one shot where I felt it today, which was good”.
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Mickelson and Patrick Reed are both 2-0-0 heading into a Friday head-to-head showdown to determine which one of them advance.
