Rory still in contention but DJ crashes out
RORY McIlroy’s fate at the WGC-Dell Match Play Championship is in his own hands once more after he bounced back from his opening day defeat with a victory over Venezuelan slugger Jhonattan Vegas yesterday.
With American Brian Harman defeating McIlroy’s first-day conqueror Peter Uihlein in the other group match, it means that a victory for McIlroy over the former today will either see him straight through to the last 16 — or in a sudden death play-off to decide the group winner.
It’s certainly a much better fate than the one facing world number one Dustin Johnson, who’s going to love a final group match against American Kevin Kisner knowing that, whatever the result, he’s got no chance of making it through to the weekend. The defending champion followed up his shocking display on Wednesday against Austrian Bernd Wiesberger with one almost as bad against Canadian Adam Hadwin, and he clearly has work to do on the practice ground next week to get his Masters hopes back on track.
McIlroy against Vegas might not have been a golfing classic, but it was still a hugely entertaining match, with the former doing well to keep his concentration in the face of some wild antics from the latter.
Take the opening three holes. At the first Vegas holed from 20ft for par, leaving McIlroy to hole from a quarter of that distance for a half. At the difficult second, Vegas did it again, this time for a bogey, but once more McIlroy kept his composure from 5ft to win the hole.
When Vegas holed another putt from 15ft at the third, McIlroy must have wondered what on earth he was up against. The problem for Vegas, alas, continued to be the fact he needed too many shots before he got to use his putter to apply any serious pressure on McIlroy. At the par-five 6th, Vegas was in pole position following a fine drive, after McIlroy clipped a tree with his second shot. But his own approach was so bad it left him in no position to attack the flag, and once more he ended up having to hole from 15ft simply for a half. Vegas did get back to all square when McIlroy stubbed a chip at the 7th but then promptly gave the next two holes away with bogeys. There was no comeback after that, as McIlroy ran out the winner by a 2&1 margin more comfortable than the scoreline suggests.
As for the match against the diminutive Harman today, McIlroy will enjoy a huge advantage off the tee but will be wary of an opponent who possesses two wonderful match play attributes — he’s gritty and a fine putter.
‘Brian has done me a huge favour in beating Peter and it’s great to be back in control of my own destiny,’ said McIlroy. ‘I’m not trying to make excuses but I did find it hard to press the start button again playing Peter so soon after such a great win at Bay Hill.
‘I love match play and the goal now is to go deep in this event in my final competitive outing before the Masters.’
Such is his reputation at this format, Ian Poulter knows that when he’s taking on an American he walks to the first tee with a target on his back. Or, in his own typically colourful words: ‘I was fully aware that Daniel Berger wanted to kick my backside.’
There was no chance of that as Poulter declared himself ‘buzzing’ following a second victory to assume control of his group. He should complete the task today against another American Presidents Cup player, Kevin Chappell, who was totally out of sorts in offering no resistance to Tommy Fleetwood, who duly won 7&6.
The pick of today’s matches is the all-Texan affair between Ryder Cup pairing of Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, with the winner moving on to the straight knockout stages.