Mcilroy draws no comfort following early exit, while G-mac has wind in his sails
RORY Mcilroy’s WGC-DELL Technologies Match Play challenge ended with a draw as he finished all-square with Cameron Smith in his final group game but still exited the tournament.
The World No.11 needed a victory in his last match to stand any hope of progressing to the knockouts but he needed a long birdie putt on the 18th simply to rescue a halved match against Masters runner-up Smith to close out his tournament.
Smith was never behind at any point in the match, winning the opening hole and then taking the fourth with a bogey to go two up and, although Mcilroy pulled a hole back at the eighth, the Australian restored his lead by claiming the 10th.
A phenomenal chip-in eagle at the driveable par-four 13th and a birdie at the 16th saw Mcilroy battle back to level it up at allsquare again, but he found the chasm with his tee shot at the par-three 17th and it looked like Smith would hold on for victory.
But Mcilroy drained a monster 31ft putt for birdie at the final hole to bring it back to all-square and finish the group stage with a record of one win, one draw and one loss.
The result wasn’t to matter anyway as England’s Ian Poulter — who defeated Mcilroy 6&5 on Wednesday — accounted for Lanto Griffin 2&1 to make it three wins and finish top of Group 11 to progress to the last-16.
Meanwhile, Graeme Mcdowell believes stepping back from over-analysing his game slightly has helped him after he jumped into the top 10 at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic to sit two off the lead going into the weekend.
The Rathmore man, who won this event in 2019 to spark a resurgence in form, recovered from three early bogeys to card a three-under 69 in his second round to sit five under for the tournament, two behind Rafael Campos and Fabrizio Zanotti at the halfway stage of the event.
Mcdowell has missed the cut in five of his six events this year, but after ‘pushing pause’ on his relationship with coach Lucas Wald, he feels that could boost his game sufficiently to turn around his season.
“I just feel like I’m maybe a little over-coached the last seven or eight months. If I’m being honest about it, I haven’t really done a good job on owning things myself and I felt like I just needed to take a step away from technique and start, like Pete Cowen always says to me, just controlling the ball flight,” said Mcdowell.
“Especially on a week like this week in these wind speeds, the only thing you need to focus on is controlling flights and controlling spins. It sometimes takes a golf course like this where it’s a bit more wide open off the tee and there are some chances out here. Like I say, the wind has helped me just focus on hitting shots rather than technique.
“Hopefully this can be the turning point of the season regardless of what happens this weekend, see if I can kick on, play some good golf and take some form away from this week.”
Meanwhile, Jonathan Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin both finished well off the pace at the Kenya Savannah Open as Daniel van Tonder claimed his maiden European Tour victory.
Clandeboye man Caldwell struggled in his final round, carding a three-over 74 at Karen Country Club in Nairobi to slip back to seven under for the week, while Sharvin finished with a two-under 69 to end the week one shot better at eight under.
That was well off winner Van Tonder, who finished tied with Jazz Janewattananond at 21 under but triumphed on the third play-off hole, the pair halving the 18th twice before the South African finally broke the tie with a fantastic approach to 3ft to set up the winning birdie.