Spieth out as Rory gets into the swing
McIlroy makes the last four in Texas
RORY McILROY had breakfast in the clubhouse with Jordan Spieth yesterday, but only one of them was still around after lunch for the semi-finals of the WGCDell Match Play Championship. McIlroy beat Open champion Zach Johnson and triumphed over American Chris Kirk in the quarter-finals to stretch his record in the event to an amazing 12 wins in a row.
Spieth, meanwhile, failed to produce his best stuff against Louis Oosthuizen and duly lost 4&2 in the round of 16.
Spieth had been imperious in his three group games but every player knows they are going to have an average day.
That’s when you hope to be playing someone not at the top of their game either, but it was Spieth’s misfortune to run into the silky South African showing just why he represents a great bet for the Masters in a mere 11 days’ time.
However, this exit might prove a blessing in disguise for defending Masters champion Spieth.
He is back in action two hours down the road this week in Houston and, even for a 22-yearold, if he’d gone all the way and played seven rounds here, followed by four more under an intense spotlight in that event, it would have represented a very heavy workload heading to Augusta.
As it is, he came here looking for momentum and believes he now has it going into the final stretch before the first major.
‘Even with a poor round today I think I was 10 under par for four rounds on a difficult golf course, so my game is definitely heading in the right direction going to Houston and through to the Masters,’ he reflected.
‘I feel a lot better about Augusta now than I did last Tuesday. I just don’t know what happened today. I had great ball control for the first three days, playing three really solid rounds, and then I got to the range this morning and started slicing my iron shots.
‘I’m not sure what happened. Just really an off day, and it’s a bummer because of the support I’ve been getting.
‘But I feel like it’s an easy fix over the next couple of days and I think I’ll be in contention in Houston.’
As for McIlroy, getting further in the competition than the hometown favourite on a course Spieth has played a lot, and beyond a noted match play exponent in Johnson at a venue tailor made for his strategic game, might have represented a decent goal at the start of the week in the defence of his title.
As it is, he achieved both during a satisfying performance in the morning when he edged out the obdurate Johnson and then convincingly beat Kirk 4&3.
At the short 11th hole, against Johnson, he was 40-feet away after one stroke, with McIlroy just 5ft from the hole and seemingly destined to go one up.
Johnson then holed, leaving the Northern Irishman that testing putt just for a half.
Similarly at the l ong 12th Johnson put his second shot into the water but still got up and down from 100 yards for another unlikely half.
Such antics can mess with an opponent’s head but McIlroy has shown in Ryder Cups and this event he can cope with it all.
Even at the end Johnson was at it, holing a 20ft birdie putt at the last to leave McIlroy needing to hole from 4ft to win.
The only player with a longer winning streak than McIlroy’s is Tiger Woods — it’s always him, isn’t it? — who won 13 matches consecutively in 2003-4.
As he walked into the clubhouse for a 45-minute break before winning his last-eight encounter, McIlroy reflected on a fourth close success in a row. ‘These tight, competitive matches are ideal when you’re getting ready for the Masters,’ he said.
‘I feel like my game is in really good shape now. My putting feels really good and I’m striking the ball very well.’
Europe’s other representative, Rafa Cabrera-Bello from Spain, also made it through to guarantee him a place in the world’s top 50 — and an invitation to Augusta.
Australian Jason Day also won — easily seeing off the challenge of Brandt Snedeker 3&2 — which left him needing to beat another American, Brooks Koepka, in the quarter-finals to pass Spieth and become world No1 once more. He duly did so, winning 3&2 again.