Kisner, Scheffler make semifinals in Match Play
One match required a comeback the likes off which Austin Country Club has never seen. The other was easy enough to feel like a warm walk along Lake Austin. Either way, Kevin Kisner just seems to win in the Dell Technologies Match Play.
Three down on the 15th tee, Kisner won the next four holes to beat Adam Scott in the fourth round Saturday morning. In the quarterfinals, he was 3 up on Will Zalatoris after four holes and never trailed in a 4-and 3 victory.
Kisner reached the final day of this fickle tournament for the third time, the most of anyone since it changed from singleelimination to group play in 2015. He lost in the championship match in 2018 and won the next year.
But he has plenty of company among the semifinalists.
Scottie Scheffler got a tiny measure of revenge when he went 18 holes to outlast Billy Horschel, who beat him a year ago in the final match. Scheffler advanced in the afternoon by beating Seamus Power of Ireland, 3 and 2.
Also in the semifinals is Dustin Johnson, who each day seems to be getting closer to the form that made him No. 1 in the world longer than any other player since Tiger Woods. Johnson eliminated 49-year-old Richard Bland in a scrappy fourthround match, then went the distance with Brooks Koepka in the quarterfinals.
Johnson had to rally from 2 down against Koepka in a fascinating duel between former world No. 1 players and multiple major champions. They were all square when Johnson halved the 12th hole with a 15-foot birdie, took the lead with a 25-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole and saved another tough par on the 16th.
Johnson closed him out by driving the 18th green, forcing Koepka to aggressively try to hole a chip from left of the green that went off the putting surface into a drainage ditch.
Johnson, who won the Match Play in 2017, will face Scheffler in the semifinals Sunday morning. Kisner will play Corey Conners, the first Canadian to reach the semifinals at Match Play. Conners had an easy time with Takumi Kanaya in the morning (5 and 3), and then played the 18th hole in competition for the first time all week to hold off Abraham Ancer of Mexico.
For Scheffler, more is at stake than his third PGA Tour win in his past five starts. Jon Rahm, the world’s No. 1 player, lost to Koepka in 19 holes in the morning. That means Scheffler can go to the top of the world ranking if he were to win the Match Play.
That’s a little too far ahead for a guy who rarely thinks about anything other than his next shot, especially facing Johnson on Sunday morning before a partisan Texas Longhorns crowd.
Kisner will try to become only the third player to reach the championship match at least three times since this World Golf Championship began in 1999, joining Tiger Woods and Geoff Ogilvy.
PGA TOUR
Ben Martin shot a 2under 70 on Saturday to hold onto a two-shot lead in the PGA Tour’s Corales Puntacana Championship.
Martin had five birdies and three bogeys as the wind dropped at Corales Golf Course to take a 14-under 202 into the final round. He opened with consecutive 66s.
The 34-year-old former Clemson player has made only one other PGA Tour start this year, missing the cut in Puerto Rico with rounds of 78 and 70. He won the 2014 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open for his lone PGA Tour title.
Chad Ramey was second after a 69. He eagled the par-5 14th.
The 29-year-old from Mississippi is seeking his first tour victory.
“Don’t change a thing,” Ramey said. “Obviously, I’m doing something right, so I’m just going to stick to my game plan and just see what happens.”
Three-time tour winner Jhonattan Vegas had a 65
– the best round of the week – to get to 11 under, and Cameron Percy (67) was 10 under with Martin Trainer (67), Thomas Detry (68), David Lipsky (68) and Nate Lashley (69).
QATAR MASTERS
Matthew Jordan and Adrian Meronk share the lead heading into the final round at the Qatar Masters, with Kalle Samooja one stroke back after shooting 6-under 66 on Saturday.
Jordan (70) and Meronk (72) have 54-hole totals of 8-under 208 at Doha Golf Club as both search for their first European tour win.
The 282nd-ranked Jordan had a front-nine 39 but recovered with five birdies on the back nine in an overall “stressful” round.
“I couldn’t get up and down,” the Englishman said, “but I knew I wasn’t that far off. Fortunately enough, it all started to click. It was stressful but always very rewarding when you do well.”
Samooja of Finland had eight birdies in the day’s best round.
Longtime leader Pablo Larrazabal (75) slipped two shots back in a threeway tie for fourth with fellow Spaniard Adrian Otaegui (70) and South Africa’s Wilco Nienaber (74).