Spieth, McIlroy stumble in Match Play
Tanihara, Kjeldsen pull surprises
Hideto Tanihara AUSTIN couldn’t wait to watch his opponent.
Soren Kjeldsen kept his eyes off his adversary.
Both, however, looked pretty good in Wednesday’s first round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club.
Tanihara, seeded No. 54, toppled local favorite and No. 5 seed Jordan Spieth 4 and 2, and Kjeldsen got the best of No. 2 seed Rory McIlroy 2 and 1. Those were the biggest surprises on the first of three days of round-robin play, which will whittle the field of 64 to 16 survivors.
Unfortunately, the defending champion, Jason Day, will not be here this weekend. Day left in tears after he withdrew to fly home to Ohio to be with his ailing mother, who is having surgery Friday for lung cancer.
World No. 1 and top seed Dustin Johnson won the first three holes and defeated Webb Simpson 5 and 3. Other top seeds winning included Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Paul Casey. Other top seeds Matt Kuchar, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia halved their matches.
McIlroy and Spieth still can advance out of their pod, but both need help, thanks to Tanihara and Kjeldsen.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” said Tanihara, a 13-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour playing this event for the first time.
“I never got to pair with him, so I wanted to see how he played, who Jordan Spieth is. I was actually looking forward to it. I was going to try to enjoy it, every moment of it. And it was fun.
“I knew if I brought my A game, I could probably compete against him. I felt like Jordan didn’t play that well.”
Spieth certainly didn’t have his A game.
“Just an off day,” he said. “Played a really good opponent. Plays a simple game. Point A to Point B. He only made one mistake all day. I didn’t capitalize on the opportunities that I had early. I was a little behind the eight ball and just didn’t have my best stuff.
“At this point, I can’t control my own destiny. Whatever we work on is with eyes toward im- proving the next couple of rounds and then into next week and trying to get better each day.”
Kjeldsen was driving to the course in the dark Wednesday morning when he thought of his career record in the event: 0-4-1. Not exactly the perfect mind-set heading into the match, but he had the perfect approach — don’t watch what McIlroy was doing.
“A few times he hit it about 100 yards past me. I was trying not to look at that too much,” he said. “I knew I had to play well to have a chance. To be honest with you, that’s the case in every match this week. The players are so good that you need to be on your game. I got into my little zone. He’s such a great player, so I knew I had to go and play well. I had to focus on what I was doing, and I played really well today. My mind-set was if I go and shoot a good score, he has to play well to beat me. I obviously know he’s capable of that, but I managed just to squeeze it in.”
Kjeldsen kept his wits about him when McIlroy unloaded a 410-yard drive on the par-5 12th hole, which set up a hole-winning birdie. It was part of three consecutive holes won by McIlroy, who took a 1-up lead to the 14th. But Kjeldsen birdied his final four holes to win.
“I’m used to the guys that hit it a very, very long way,” Kjeldsen said. “I wish I could wake up tomorrow and hit it 410 downhill, but it’s not going to happen. I have to make the most of what I’ve got, and I did that today.”
McIlroy tipped his hat after the match. “If I had played anyone else, I might have won. Soren played great. I have to give him credit. He played really, really well from the first hole,” McIlroy said. “His wedge play was very sharp all day. He didn’t miss any real makable putts. He sort of holed everything he should have.
“Overall, I can’t be too disappointed, but at the same time when standing on the 14th tee, just having won three holes in a row, I thought I had him going into a tough stretch of the golf course. But he put up (four) birdies in a row, and you can’t do anything about that.”