DJ, Lefty dominate
Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson showed the simple side to the Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas. 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 yesterday. He was awarded a victory because Jason Day withdrew on Wednesday, got a reprieve when Lee Westwood beat Pat Perez to force a threeman 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 win 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.
Tie in Puerto Rico
Former U.S. Amateur champion Bryson DeChambeau ran off four straight birdies in a stop-and-start round and finished with a 7-under 65 to share the lead with D.A. Points in the raindelayed Puerto Rico Open.
Points hit all 18 greens in regulation at Coco Beach Golf and Country Club in Rio Grande, though he didn’t have as many reasonable looks at birdie as he would have liked. Points also had a 3-putt bogey to go with four birdies in his round of 69.
They were at 11-under 133 when the second round was suspended by darkness. . . .
Top-ranked Lydia Ko missed the cut for just the second time in 91 LPGA Tour starts when she bogeyed two of her final three holes at the Kia Classic in Carlsbad, Calif.
Cristie Kerr, the 2015 Kia champion, shot a 3-under 69 to take a 1-shot lead over Mo Martin and Mirim Lee.