McIlroy rallies for win with `good' shot
Rory McIlroy chips to the green on the sixth hole during the second round of the Match Play Championship.
Rory McIlroy had every reason to love the long ball Thursday.
Taken to the 18th hole in the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, McIlroy unleashed the shot of the tournament. He smashed a drive on the 375-yard closing hole so magnificently that it pitched on the green and rolled out to just inside 4 feet.
That all but clinched his 2-up victory over Denny McCarthy as McIlroy led a parade of top seeds into the final round of group play at Austin Country Club.
“It was good,” McIlroy said with a smile.
He capped a rally from 3 down through six holes. McIlroy didn't take his first lead in the match until another power show — a big drive into the wind on the par-5 16th to set up a twoputt birdie from 18 feet.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler, who had to make a 12-footer on the last hole to win his first match, had seven birdies in a ninehole stretch in the middle of his match against Alex Noren for a 5-and-4 victory.
Patrick Cantlay (4), Max Homa (5) and Xander Schauffele (6) also won their matches as four of the top six seeds took a 2-0 record into today in a bid to win their group and advance to the knockout stage on the weekend.
The exception was Jon
Rahm, who recovered from his opening round loss by driving the green on the par-4 fifth on his way to a 4-and-3 victory over Keith Mitchell. That means Rahm winning his group is in his hands, as Rickie Fowler lost his match.
PGA Tour
Brice Garnett returned to the course of his lone PGA Tour victory and played a clean round in a steady wind for a 6-under 66 and a share of the lead with Ben Martin in the Corales Puntacana Championship.
Garnett won in 2018 and has returned to the tournament every year. He prefers a steady wind and feels comfortable on the greens, and it showed.
Martin matched Garnett with a bogey-free round, joining him in the lead with a birdie on the par-3 eighth and finishing with a tee shot off the rocks on the par-3 ninth that took a favorable bounce onto the green.
They had a one-shot lead over Matt Wallace.
DP World Tour
Darren Fichardt and Martin Vorster shared the lead at the Jonsson Workwear Open after opening with 8-under 64s.
They lead by a shot ahead of a four-way tie for third containing Nick Bachem, Joakim Lagergren, Hennie O'Kennedy and Sebastian Soderberg.