Woods still in the hunt

TIGER Woods lost his match and got off easy.

At least he still has a chance in the Dell Technologies Match Play.

Brooks Koepka needed to birdie the 18th hole at Austin Country Club to avoid elimination, and he was out of luck when Li Haotong hit a wedge from the rough that stopped inches from the cup.

For players like Keegan Bradley, Patrick Reed and Webb Simpson, a tie felt like a loss because that’s exactly what it was.

They all were among 20 players — a group that includes defending champion Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson — who were mathematically eliminated Thursday. With one round-robin sessions remain, the Match Play began to take shape, not so much from who has the best chance to advance out of group play into the weekend knockout stage, but who has to show up Friday for a match knowing they’re going home, win or lose.

Woods, who lost on the 17th hole to Brandt Snedeker, can still advance if he wins his match and Snedeker loses or halves his match.

“All I can do is hopefully get a point tomorrow and see if that’s good enough,” Woods said.

Jordan Spieth is still alive after building a 6-up lead through 12 holes on Kevin Na, but not winning until four holes later when Na missed a 4-foot birdie putt. Jim Furyk and Henrik Stenson emerged with 2-0 records from the group of major champions.

They play Friday after knocking out Phil Mickelson and Jason Day.

“It’s going to be a tough one again,” Stenson said. “Jim, I don’t think he’s given away an easy bogey since 1994 or something.”/AP