Match Play in Texas, LPGA preps for major
AUSTIN, TEXAS » Put together the top 64 players available fromtheworld ranking, have them play 112 matches over five days, and anything can happen.
That’s the beauty of the Dell TechnologiesMatchPlay. The event began Wednesday with final matches not being completed by press time.
Last year, Jason Day seemed to cruise at Austin Country Club, winning all seven of his matches — only his semifinal match against Rory McIlroy went to the 18th hole. Easy as he made it look, Day tweaked his back in the opening match and nearly didn’t show up the next day. Of course, he drove the first green, and off he went.
McIlroy won all seven of his matches the previous year, only he twice had to go to extra holes.
All that matters is winning, and sometimes even that doesn’t matter.
Byeong Hun An and Patton Kizzire last year won only one match in the roundrobin play, halved two others, and still advanced out of their group. It can get complicated, though Sergio Garcia brought some simplicity to the most fickle of formats.
“You have to be very calm and just be a little bit better than your opponent,” Garcia said.
The Match Play is the featured attraction this week, mainly because golf doesn’t get very muchmatch play except for the Dell Match Play, the Paul Lawrie Match Play on the European Tour and the LorenaOchoaMatch Play on the LPGA Tour, plus the Presidents Cup and Solheim Cup this year.
The LPGA Tour is at the Kia Classic in Carlsbad, California, a strong field that will be warming up for the first major of the year at next week’s ANA Inspiration in the California desert. And while the top PGA Tour players are in Austin, the rest are at the Puerto Rico Open.
Also back in action this week is the Web.com Tour in Louisiana.
Two tournaments will be without defending champions. Tony Finau won in Puerto Rico last year, but he’s the first alternate in Match Play and is taking his chances bywaiting around in Texas. Wesley Bryan won in Louisiana last year, and now he’s in Puerto Rico trying to win to get into the top 50 and receive a Masters invitation.
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OFPGATOURS
The early days of the Match Play brought out the unpredictable nature of the format, especially when it was single elimination. The seeds of the first four champions were No. 24 (Jeff Maggert), No. 19 (Darren Clarke), No. 55 (Steve Stricker) and No. 62 (Kevin Sutherland).
Since then, only one player beyond the No. 21 seed has won. That was Geoff Ogilvy (No. 52) at La Costa in 2006. Ogilvy went on to win the U.S. Open that summer.
Tiger Woods won three times, but he hasn’t been eligible the last three years and last played in 2013 when he lost to Charles Howell III in the opening round. Day will try to join Woods as a threetime winner. Along withwinning a year ago, he outlasted the French magician , Victor Dubuisson, in a most wild affair in the Arizona desert even as Dubuisson was getting up-and-down from the cactus.
The No. 1 seed is Dustin Johnson, who won in Mexico three weeks ago and will try to become the first player to sweep all four World Golf Championships.
Television: Wednesday- Friday, 2-8 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 2- 6 p.m. ( NBC). Sunday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-7 p.m. (NBC).
LPGATOUR
It wasonly three years ago that Stacy Lewis swept all the LPGATour awards, starting with player of the year. Nowshe can’t seemtowin. Lewis was runner-up last week for the 12th time since her last victory in Arkansas in June 2014. She’s back to try again this week at the Kia Classic, whichboasts another strong field with the first major of the year the following week.
Lydia Ko won the first of her four LPGAtitles last year at Aviara Golf Club north of San Diego. No one has won the tournament more than once since it began in 2010.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 8:30-10:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 5:30-9 p.m. (Golf Channel); Sunday, 6-9 p.m. (Golf Channel).
PGATOUR
Wesley Bryan’s latest trick might be his most difficult — getting into the Masters.
The South Carolina native famous for his trick-shot videos that made him a YouTube sensation will have to win the Puerto Rico to have anychance to get into the top 50 in the world. That’s critical because this is the last week to get into the top 50 and earn a spot in the Masters.
Bryan now lives in Augusta, Georgia, so the motivation is plenty strong.
Puerto Rico has produced first-time PGA Tour winners each of the last five years. The last two were in playoffs wonbyFinauandAlexCejka.
Television: Thursday-Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 2-5:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Sunday, 2:30- 6 p.m. (Golf Channel). CHARLOTTE, N. C. » Kyle Larson finished second at Phoenix International Raceway and then headed to the beach for a brief family vacation.
There was no lamenting his third consecutive runner-up finish because Larson is the current points leader of NASCAR’s top series. His positioning atop the standings is almost as good as a trip to victory lane.
Larson has now finished second in four of the last five Cup races dating to last season’s finale, and he was in contention for the victory in the Daytona 500 until he ran out of gas on the final lap and finished 12th. A two-tire stop put him in position to win Sunday at Phoenix in overtime, but a slip on the restart cost him any chance of running down leader Ryan Newman in the two-lap sprint to the finish.
“I mean, I guess little mistakes or inexperience or whatever you want to call it,” Larson said of his bridesmaid status. “Hindsight is always 20/20. But I should have went a lane up in one and two. I should have known to just stay close to Newman. That’s what I wish I would have done. But, yeah, it’s weird ... I finish second like every week. Maybe we’ll turn them into wins soon.”
Sure, wins would be great, but at this pace, Larson doesn’t need them. He’s using consistency to run up front and stay in contention for a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs. It’s the beauty of NASCAR’s points system that is often overlooked.
Yes, a win just about guarantees a spot in the 16- driver field. But there have not been 16 individual race winners yet in this for-
Kyle Busch dropped the phrase “everything is great” in response to every single question he was asked at Phoenix about a meeting with NASCAR to discuss a scuffle with Joey Logano. Then he said it again Sunday after finishing third in a race he likely would have won if not for a late caution brought out by — Logano.
His response channeled the attitude Marshawn Lynch often took
There’s been so much attention on the fast starts of Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Austin Dillon, that somewhat overlooked through the first NASCAR month have been the Joe Gibbs Racing rookies.
But Daniel Suarez finished seventh at Phoenix and Erik Jones was eighth in his Furniture Row Racing entry for career-best finishes for both Cup rookies. Suarez has all of four Cup starts to his name, while Jones now has seven. Suarez was aided on the late caution by a two-tire pit call.
“The guys did an amazing job,” Suarez said. “They just did exactly what they had to do: a fast pit stop, two tires and the car was almost as good as four tires.”
Jones felt like Sunday could be a good day for his team, and he’d tested at the track in early February.
“I think it helped a lot,” Jones said of the test. “It was able to at least give us a good baseline to start with. I think every time we start coming back to these tracks for the second time we’re just going to be that much better and that much stronger. It was a big deal. I hope we test somewhere else this year for sure.”